


Twice Time Right

by gwendee



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: A Non Legally Binding Marriage, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, But Not In Las Vegas, Fluff and Humor, Future Fic, Gen, Las Vegas Wedding, M/M, Marriage, Non-Explicit Sex, Post-Canon, Romantic Comedy, They're Grown Ups Ok, but like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-10-08 21:29:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 26,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17394053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee
Summary: They meet (many years later) in the most cliche way possible: a mutual friend’s wedding in a country they’ll probably never go to otherwise.The first hour is about small talk and mingling and boredly watching the dancers on stage, but about three drinks in Karma is sufficiently tipsy to finally stare at Gakushuu and notice how much hotter he’s actually become. Thus began a night of aggressive flirting that miraculously works, a whirlwind week-long romance that puts most of hollywood to shame, and a drunken spontaneous wedding ceremony at a chapel whose name or address that neither remember, 24 hours before the supposed big day.Then Gakushuu gets on a plane to go to the other side of the world, and Karma never sees him again.At least, not until yesterday.Karma's ready to woo the hell out of his ex-husband, in all the right ways this time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Miss me? Gwen's back with more... uh... stuff. 
> 
> I can't guarantee super-frequent updates that The Reason brought you but I'll try to post something at least once a week. 
> 
> So this fic is where they're Adults (TM) and since I'm pretty sure our AssClass Trio Nagisa/Kayano/Karma are fated to be BFFs for life, they're here too but I don't know about the others yet. Bringing back Kabaya and Rukiyo cuz I love them (for those who have no clue who they are, they debuted in The Reason and they're just OCs to make sure Karma has friends in high school) and like, more people that have minor existing roles because you need people. 
> 
> But let me know what you think? Shoot me a comment to complain about my shitty writing anytime.

They meet in the most cliche way possible: a mutual friend’s wedding in a country they’ll probably never go to otherwise.

Karma Akabane meets Asano Gakushuu, again, at David Ashford’s bachelor party, who is hilariously delighted that his two Japanese friends are acquainted, and makes a quip on how Asian people must know each other.

The first hour is about small talk and mingling and boredly watching the dancers on stage, but about three drinks in Karma is sufficiently tipsy to finally stare at Gakushuu and notice how much hotter he’s actually become. Thus began a night of aggressive flirting that miraculously works, a whirlwind week-long romance that puts most of hollywood to shame, and a drunken spontaneous wedding ceremony at a chapel whose name or address that neither remember, 24 hours before the supposed big day.

After a wedding night that’s not theirs, there’s a spontaneous honeymoon a coast away, because not even Asano Gakushuu would say no to three whole days of relaxation and rather spectacular sex. Then Gakushuu gets on a plane to go to the other side of the world, and Karma never sees him again. 

At least, not until yesterday.

\--

One whole year later, Karma thinks, and he grows even more handsome. Karma supposes Gakushuu is one of those lucky people that age like a fine wine. 

He’s not being a creeper, honest. There’s only so much staring one could not do with a man that looks freakishly identical to your ex-husband a few tables away.

“Hey,” Megumi says, snapping her fingers a few inches from Karma’a nose. “Earth to Akabane?” 

“Sorry,” Karma says.

Megumi glares, and she follows his gaze and her eyes widen. “Okay, I forgive you. Those two are hot. Wait, why are you staring? You know one of them?”

Karma nods absently. 

Megumi hums consideringly. “Blond or brunet? College classmates or something?”

“That’s my ex,” Karma tells her.

“Really?” Megumi’s jaw drops, it’s comical. “You like guys?! Wait, which one?”

“The blond,” Karma says. He continues staring.

“The blond’s hot,” Megumi says, “aww, he’s gay.”

“He’s bi,” Karma corrects.

“Doesn’t matter, he’s on a date,” Megumi points out.

Karma frowns. Gakushuu has his mean, baiting face on, and it’s the face he has on just before he signs a deal to get him another million, but it’s also the same face he has to goad Karma into a fight just before Karma kisses the fucking life out of him.

“/We’re/ not on a date,” Karma says, a little sourly, “it could be a business meeting.

Gakushuu tilts his head. The brunet’s eyes trace the movement, and Karma grips his fork a little harder.

“How long did you two date?” Megumi asks, oblivious.

“We didn’t date,” Karma says unjustifiably bitter, when Brunet says something probably stupid as fuck and Gakushuu laughs, “we were married.” 

\--

That was a lie. Karma and Gakushuu dated for 2 years back in high school, and broke up with a “this probably wouldn’t work out long distance anyways” before Gakushuu moved to America. 

Karma had been rather nonchalant about it back then, it had been fun but high school relationships hardly lasted anyhow. He did find himself wondering, at times, because there was no one quite as intelligent and witty and aggressive, no one who gave him a challenge quite like Gakushuu. And it was the challenge that drew Karma in in the first place. 

But Karma had pushed those what-if? thoughts aside, because there was no point in dwelling over it anyways, not that he was going to ever meet Gakushuu again.

That is, until David’s wedding.

And their own.

“Wait I’m sorry,” Isoe says, “back up a bit. You were married?”

“I was getting to that part,” Karma says.

“Oh.”

“We met at David’s bachelor party,” Karma says, “had a very hard and fast thing for about a week, and got drunk hitched one night before David’s actual wedding.”

“Hard and fast,” Isoe snickers.

Karma slaps him a little. 

“So you’re like, actually married?” Isoe asks.

“Not legally,” Karma shrugs, “we just went to a church and had a ceremony and kissed the groom and stuff.” 

Isoe looks thoughtful. Then, “well, what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to woo the fuck out of him,” Karma takes a satisfied sip of his coffee. “He’s back in Japan for an undetermined period of time, so it’s free game for however long he’s back for, then we can just repeat the whole scenario all over again.”

“Another wedding? How do you even know if he’s available?” Isoe says, “or that he’d like you? Isn’t it too much hassle for both of you if you already know it won’t last?”

“Oh, he’s single,” Karma says, because two hours of internet stalking did not go to waste, “and it’s not about whether or not we’ll end up together in 60 years. It’s just about having fun, and he’s honestly the best partner I’ve ever had, sexual or otherwise.”

“I don’t like that look,” Isoe says, “but whatever happens will be entertaining, so go for it, Akabane!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello ya all, how has life been?

The call comes on a weeknight at 10pm, Karma freshly out of the shower and lounging in bed. It’s from an unknown number but Karma already has an inkling of who it is. The rather unprofessional email he sent to a certain company earlier this afternoon gave him a clue.

“Hey,” he says.

“Hello,” an amused and familiar voice curls in the receiver, “is it against the law to proposition someone via official government channels?”

“You’re the one who took it as a proposition,” Karma says. He sits up.

“Fair,” Gakushuu says, “how did you know I was back in japan?”

“Saw you at a restaurant,” Karma says, “you were with a brunet. Why are you back?”

“Thought I saw someone with your obnoxious red hair,” Gakushuu muses, “couldn’t be too sure. My company is expanding to Asia, I suggested Japan, of course. You were with a lady?”

“My partner,” Karma says, then panics. “Wait, no, I meant work partner!”

“And I suppose the hasty correction means something,” Gakushuu says.

“I’m the best fuck you’ve ever had and you know it,” Karma says.

“Always so crass,” Gakushuu laughs warmly. It makes Karma’s toes curl. “I’m really busy this week. Raincheck?”

“Let me take you out to dinner,” Karma says, “one thing at a time.”

“But hoping the night does not stop at dinner,” Gakushuu says.

Karma grins. “Guilty.”

There’s a soft humming on the line. Karma remembers Gakushuu’s rather amazing singing voice. Then, “next Friday? I have a meeting till 7.”

“8, then. That Italian place were we broke the vase in and then had our first kiss after in our second year in High School?”

“Where /you/ broke the vase,” Gakushuu corrects, “see you in six days.”

\--

Karma freaks out.

It’s kind of hilarious, in hindsight, but he actually wants to make a good impression on the man, booty call or no. He calls up Rukiyo, who laughs at him for a good five minutes and says that if Gakushuu agreed to meet him, the sex was a guarantee. 

But Karma doesn’t JUST want sex. Sure, it’s great and all, but Gakushuu himself is a brilliant conversational partner and Karma would actually like them to be friends. At which admission Rukiyo says, “if you wanted to be just friends with him you would have kept in contact all those years,” made some kissy noises, and hung up. 

Kabaya sends him a voice recording of him laughing, several pictures of a teenage Gakushuu and Karma, and a few smiley emojis.

Isoe tries to help. Unfortunately, Isoe is as much help as he normally is, which is to say, none at all. Megumi seems much more concerned at uncovering Karma’s backstory than anything else.

“How did you two meet?” Megumi asks, leaning over the cubicle dividers.

“Do I pay you to gossip or to work?” Ohiko says, walking past their tables.

“Sorry boss,” Isoe says, the same time Megumi says, “but Akabane has a date tonight!”

“Hm,” Ohiko tone turns mildly interested. Megumi seems to take that as a yes to the gossip, and turns back to Karma eagerly.

“In school,” Karma says. Isoe is trying to comb Karma’s hair, which is endearing and sad.

“High school sweethearts?” Megumi asks.

“Yep,” Karma says. 

“I didn’t know you had a long term girlfriend,” Ohiko says. He leans against the desk.

“I don’t,” Karma says, “he’s my-”

“Husband!” Megumi interrupts, eyes wide.

“Ex-husband,” Karma wrinkles his nose, and whacks her fingers hanging over the cubicle divider with a ruler. She pulls her hands back with an annoyed expression. 

Isoe snags a knot in Karma’s hair. Karma winces.

“Work, all of you,” Ohiko says, straightening up. “Megumi, stop bothering Akabane. Isoe, you’ll make him look even worse than he is.”

Isoe looks apologetic, and attempts to smoothen Karma’s hair down. Megumi huffs. Karma shoots Ohiko a grateful look, who waves it away with a roll of his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHA ok this fic is turning weird.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miss me, ya'll?  
> So I got this idea because I read a writing prompt that said "lovers who split up and get back together again" and I was like... hey... BUT I'm too much of a softy to make them have a Bad Split Up (jk you guys already know I'm mean as heck) so I... made this.

Gakushuu is late, but that has never bothered Karma. Back in school, he was often held up with responsibilities and student council meetings. 

It’s only 45 minutes in when he looks up from his phone, after the waiter has been by five times and he’s being given sympathetic looks by the patrons around his table, that Karma considers the possibility that he’s been stood up.

Karma has a brief moment of panic. He dials Gakushuu’s number, watches the line go busy, and deliberates between an escape plan or calling one of his friends to come; the reservation wasn’t easy to come by, no point in wasting it, even if Karma did feel pretty bitter about-

-There was a commotion at the counter that Karma couldn’t get a glimpse of, an “I’m so sorry!” and then Gakushuu Asano appears, crumpled suit and briefcase looking very much like a harried businessman, running a hand through his hair and eyes darting around the room.

Karma stands up. Gakushuu spots him and slumps over in relief. “You’re still here.”

Karma’s just glad he’s not been abandoned at the altar, or whatever. He feels a little silly now, Gakushuu wouldn’t do something as childish as not show up for a date, if he didn’t want to meet Karma at all he wouldn’t have even bothered calling. 

“You’re late,” Karma says.

“I know,” Gakushuu says, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how late the meeting ended.” And he does sound sorry, too.

Karma softens. One year ago even in the midst of what was supposed to be a vacation, Gakushuu had been stressed to all hell, and company expansion must be running him to the ground. 

Speaking of.

“Did you run here?” Karma asks, eyebrow raised. 

Gakushuu flushes. “I’m an hour late.”

“We’re half an hour from your building,” Karma scolds, “by car.”

“Twenty if I sprint,” Gakushuu shrugs, "the traffic here is insane. There's a shortcut on foot."

Karma’s waiter, who previously looked rather annoyed at Gakushuu’s tardy appearance and then a little misty-eyed about running being a mode of transport, gets them started on the appetizers that Karma had ordered.

“You remembered what I like,” Gakushuu says, unnecessarily emotional. 

“Can you imagine not knowing my husband’s favourite foods?” Karma jokes.

Gakushuu tilts his head, and smiles a little oddly. “I suppose we did get married,” he said, sounding a little like he just received an email reminder about it. 

“Did you forget?” Karma gives a mock-scandalized gasp, “that was the happiest day of my life!”

“That was the drunkest day of your life,” Gakushuu says, “I had to carry you from the church. You’re not as light as you look, you know.”

“Really?” Karma’s honestly surprised. “I don’t remember that.”

“You don’t remember much of it,” Gakushuu sniffs, “you proposed with an onion ring. I can’t believe I was drunk enough to accept.”

“I did?” Karma’s delighted. “What happened to it? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You ate it, you asshole,” Gakushuu says, “you ate my goddamn wedding ring. And I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t shut up about it.”

The couple a table away giggles. Gakushuu gives them an affectionate “this is what I deal with” look that plays the part of exasperated partner well.

Karma sits back and narrows his eyes, and stares at Gakushuu, who mirrors his pose. Then Karma says, “you didn’t remember either, did you?”

Gakushuu gives him a small, amused smile. “Apparently I took a video of everything,” he admits, “I saw it on my phone on the plane.”

“Send it to me,” Karma demands.

\--

Ironically enough, Karma and Gakushuu kiss in the exact spot they did the first time, by a back alley with a leaky pipe. The pipe had since then been fixed, Karma was going to raise hell to the land management department if the pipe continued leaking for 10 years. But it had been that pipe who got Karma his first kiss; he jumped over a puddle it caused and apparently that had been too damn adorable for Gakushuu to resist shoving their mouths together.

“My place or yours?” Karma says, when they part.

“Yours,” Gakushuu says, a little embarrassed, “I’m actually living with my dad until I get an apartment of my own.”

“The principal?!” Karma says, eyes wide, “holy shit. I haven’t seen him in 10 years!”

“You’re not missing a lot,” Gakushuu says.

“Does he know you’re about to get,” Karma says, then makes an obscene gesture that has Gakushuu’s face turn as red as Karma’s hair.

“No! Jesus!” Gakushuu slaps him, Karma laughing hard. “I’m a grown man. I can not go home for one night.”

“Did you sign a parental consent letter?” Karma giggles, then dodges the briefcase that Gakushuu swings at him. Karma’s still ugly laughing when Gakushuu manhandles him into the cab.

\--

“Did you clean up for me?” Gakushuu actually sounds touched.

Karma turns red. “I’m a functioning adult,” he says.

“Full offense, you can’t sweep to save your life,” Gakushuu says, stepping around Karma and taking a good look at his living room. “Did you dust, too?”

“Stop it!” Karma lunges.

Gakushuu catches him, like Karma knows he would. Gakushuu also lets go to dump him on the ground, like Karma knows he would. Karma pivots and swings himself around using Gakushuu’s shoulder, like Karma knows that Gakushuu knows that he would.

Gakushuu uses the momentum and flings them both onto the sofa, pinning Karma under him.

When they break apart, Karma tugs at his jacket. “Too many clothes,” he grins. 

One athletic half hour later, they haven’t moved from the living room but Karma’s already nicely sore. It seems that Gakushuu was pretty happy to see him.

“Shut up,” Gakushuu chokes, when Karma drops that line. 

Karma straddles him, sticks out his tongue, and starts kissing him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully no one was too OOC or anything like that? Not sure if there's much Asano character I can get out of this chapter but more in the next!  
> Heh, how do you think this is going to work out?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that technically, this should be "thrice time right" because it's their third shot at this whole relationship thing, but whatever. Twice sounds cooler. *cue Kpop*

“Show me the video,” Karma says. 

Gakushuu groans, and turns around. “Go to sleep.”

“I want to watch the video,” Karma insists. He starts hitting Gakushuu with his pillow. “Wake up, asshole.”

“It;s 3am!!” Gakushuu grabs the pillow from him and flings it to the far corner of the room.

“You’re the one who wanted to go another round,” Karma says, “I’m not sleepy yet.”

“Well I am,” Gakushuu covers his eyes with his arm.

“Too bad,” Karma sings. He snatches Gakushuu’s pillow from under his head and starts hitting him. 

“Ngh,” Gakushuu says. He grabs the pillow, tackles Karma and rolls over, trapping Karma under him, and tries to go back to sleep.

“Nuh-uh,” Karma scolds. He licks his finger and sticks it in Gakushuu’s ear, who promptly rolls off Karma’s bed and hits the floor with a thud.

“Are you a fucking grade schooler?” Gakushuu snaps.

“You’re awake!” Karma says, “show me.”

Gakushuu gives him an annoyed look. Karma throws the pillow and comforter onto the ground, and slides in next to him. Gakushuu resigns to his fate and grabs his phone charging on the nightstand, and settles into the blanket nest Karma just made.

The video starts off blurry and shaky, then focuses on drunk-Gakushuu’s face, flushed and furious. 

“This BITCH,” drunk-Gakushuu starts, “ate my fucking wedding ring!”

The camera pans to reveal drunk-Karma, sobbing. “I’m so sorry!”

“You should be!” Drunk-Gakushuu yells, and slaps him. Drunk-Karma is actually crying hard, “I was so hungry!”

Drunk-Gakushuu keeps hitting him for a good 15 seconds. The shaky camera feed focuses on Drunk-Karma’s tear-streaked face, sitting miserably on the pavement, letting himself get whacked over the head.

A couple comes running into the frame, a man and a woman. “Is everything alright!?” The man yells.

“He ate my wedding ring!” Drunk-Gakushuu yells. The camera goes to the couple’s confused expression.

“I’m sorry!” Drunk-Karma says, off camera. The shot pans to him again, wiping his face with the back of his hand. “I won’t do it again!”

“How could you possibly do it again?!” Drunk-Gakushuu says. The camera pans to the couple again, who are exchanging worried glances with each other. 

“This man,” Drunk-Gakushuu, who apparently has a thing with oversharing to strangers, says very angrily, “proposed to me with a fucking onion ring. Then ate it!”

“Oh,” the woman says, “that’s…”

“How long have you two known each other?” The man interrupts, “did you meet today?”

“Middle school!” Drunk-Karma wails, and the camera moves down to reveal that he’s latched onto Drunk-Gakushuu’s leg and has his face pressed against Drunk-Gakushuu’s knee, “we dated in high school! I promise I’ll get you a really expensive and pretty ring next time and I won’t eat it!”

“Why would you propose twice?” Drunk-Gakushuu sounds confused, “does that mean we get married twice?”

“I dunno,” drunk-Karma says, “I would love to marry you twice.”

“That’s stupid,” Drunk-Gakushuu scolds, “that means we’ll have to divorce.”

“Well divorce and marry me one more time then,” Drunk-Karma decides with the authority of a thousand men, “then I can fall in love with you all over again.”

“That’s sweet,” the woman says, off camera. Drunk-Gakushuu pans the frame over to her.

“We wish you best of luck,” the man says, “do you two need help getting back home? We can hail you a cab.” 

“Wait,” drunk-Karma calls, “do you know where we can get married tonight?”

“That’s probably not a good idea,” the woman starts.

“We’ll divorce once anyways,” drunk-Karma tells her, “so we can do the second wedding better.”

The couple looks amused. “There’s a chapel two streets down from here, you can’t miss it,” the man says. 

“That’s a bad idea!” The woman slaps him. Drunk-Gakushuu films the couple, woman scolding and man laughing for another two seconds, then goes back to drunk-Karma.

“Thanks!” Drunk-Karma says, “hey, marry me.”

“I already said yes,” Drunk-Gakushuu says, “you-”

The video cuts abruptly.

“There’s another one,” Gakushuu says softly.

Karma finds his voice oddly choked up. “Play it,” he says.

The second video films steady. Both drunk-Gakushuu and drunk-Karma are in the frame, so someone else must have been filming. 

It’s a small chapel, and drunk-Karma is interrogating a man who seems to be a priest. “Can you marry us?”

“No,” the priest starts, “but-”

“Why not?” Drunk-Karma interrupts.

The priest tries again. “Sir-”

“I’ve waited 8 years to marry this idiot,” Drunk-Karma points a finger accusingly at Drunk-Gakushuu, “8 fucking years-”

“Stop interrupting him!” Drunk-Gakushuu slaps drunk-Karma hard, and the resounding smack makes their audience gasp, inclusive of two amused nuns and a rather shocked churchgoer, who stopped by to watch the commotion. Drunk-Karma, unaffected, sticks out his tongue and turns back to the priest.

“We aren’t even Christian!” Drunk-Gakushuu wails. If he were in an 18th century lady, he would be wrenching his poufy dress in despair.

“I just wanna marry you!” Drunk-Karma sobs, “I miss you so much!”

“I can… just go through with the ceremony?” The priest says, apparently touched by their display of love or whatever, and one of the nun sniffles. “It still won’t be legally binding.”

“Okay,” drunk-Karma agrees readily, “hit us.”

The priest waves a hand, oddly official. “I doubt you would want the full scripture. Do you two have, uh, vows?”

“Uh,” drunk-Karma looks like he’s thinking hard. “Remember when we were 17 and I asked you if you wanted to get married in a boat and you said it was way too early to be thinking about us getting married and I said that I wasn’t thinking about us, I was just asking how you wanted to get married?”

“Yeah?” Drunk-Gakushuu says.

“I lied!” Drunk-Karma starts crying, “I watched Pirates of the Caribbean and Will and Elizabeth’s wedding made me think of you and how cool it would be if we got married in the middle of a battle like that even though I know it probably won’t happen ever in real life, I couldn’t stop thinking about marrying your stupid ass back then!”

Drunk-Gakushuu sniffs. “The first girlfriend I got in college was a redhead and I broke it off because we were doing homework together and all I could think was that if it had been you, we would be doodling on my paper instead of trying to do math. The second boyfriend I got was also a redhead and I broke up with him because he hated strawberries!”

Drunk-Karma has liberated his shoe and sent it flying at drunk-Gakushuu’s head. “Those are terrible reasons!”

“I know!” Drunk-Gakushuu says, “I really liked them!”

“You’re stupid!” Drunk-Karma yells.

The priest coughs. “That was, uh, touching. So, are there rings to be given as tokens of this union?”

At that, drunk-Gakushuu kicks drunk-Karma hard in the leg. “He ate it!”

“I said I was sorry!” 

“Ate it?” The churchgoer echoes.

“He proposed,” drunk-Gakushuu says acidly, “with an onion ring.”

“You said yes!” Drunk-Karma defends.

“I said yes because I love you but I still hate the fucking onion ring!” Drunk-Gakushuu sends drunk-Karma’s shoe flying back at him. 

“I love you too but I also really love onion rings!” Drunk-Karma says, “the ring is just a thing, it doesn’t represent us!”

Drunk-Gakushuu pauses, then says, “I accept that.”

“I’ll get you a super pretty ring when we get married for reals,” drunk-Karma promises.

Their audience actually looks happy. The camera shakes a little.

“You may now kiss the groom,” the priest says. The next minute of footage is Karma and Gakushuu enthusiastically making out, and then the camera cuts. 

“I think someone else was filming for us,” Gakushuu tells Karma, who now has his head on his shoulder, “this video was sent to me by an unknown number.”

Karma’s silent for a moment, thinking. Then he settles with, “drunk me cries a lot more than I thought I would.”

“Ren says I was more emotional than he’d ever seen me,” Gakushuu chuckles quietly, “I guess we were both out of character.”

Karma looks at Gakushuu. He plugs the phone in again, clambers back on the bed, and Gakushuu throws back the pillow he originally flung to the corner of the room.

“Nights,” Karma says.

“Early morning, more like,” Gakushuu grumbles, but he gets back into bed next to Karma and turns out the lights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHAHA Ok I was high off my rocks writing this.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup yall! Here is your newest installment of... whatever this fic is.   
> Todobaku is the Karushuu of Bnha, reblog if you agree

Karma wakes up to an empty bed, and several notifications on his phone. It’s 7.30am and he still has about half an hour to laze around before actually having to function, but he checks his phone anyways.

It’s several messages from Rukiyo, Kabaya, and Gakushuu. He goes to read the latter, who had sent him the videos from last night, as well as a “went home to get changed. Dumped your laundry in the dryer, including my clothes, so I borrowed yours.”

Rukiyo had messaged him several selfies, a “well???” and a “so are you two fucking???” “I’ll take this lack of response as a yes!” “GET THAT DICK!”

Kabaya, monumentally more eloquent but still as dirty minded, sends him an eggplant emoji.

Karma snorts. He sends the winky face emoji to both of them, taps a quick text to Gakushuu, and then turns back to get more sleep before his alarm rings.

The commute to work is awful because public transport requires standing, and Karma collapses into his chair the moment he steps into the office. He thinks he pulled muscles he didn’t know existed.

“So, how was date night?” Megumi pops up, ever chatty and nosy and ready to annoy Karma into spilling tea. Isoe looks up curiously.

“Ngh,” Karma replies.

“Did you get laid?” Megumi asks.

“Laid off, if you three don’t get to work,” Ohiko says, sauntering past.

“Aren’t you the least bit interested in Akabane’s love life?” Megumi says, “the hottest guy in this entire office, miraculously single despite the love letters left on his desk every other day, mysterious and tight-lipped about his past, a brilliantly capable bureaucrat, suddenly reveals that he’s not only gay, but he was married?! And you’re not interested?”

“I’m right here,” Karma says tiredly, “and I never said I was gay.”

"This isn’t an escape room where the goal is to write Akabane’s biography,” Ohiko says, “Akabane, my office.”

Karma slinks into Ohiko’s office, and collapses in the plush chair across his. “I thought she’d never stop bothering me,” he thanks.

“She’ll get bored the moment something else mildly interesting happens,” Ohiko waves, “but that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about. You never mentioned a marriage in your personal details.”

“Uhm, it wasn’t legally binding,” Karma says, blushing a little, “we just had the ceremony done. Nothing signed or anything.”

“Hm,” Ohiko says, “okay, I’ll let HR know. You are aware of the recent policy change about MNCs in our country? You, Isoe and Kato can look through these corporations and make sure they’re all in line once you are done with your current case.”

“Alright.” Karma takes the folder from his boss and skims through it, and “oh! That’s my husband’s company.”

Ohiko raises an eyebrow.

“My non-legal husband,” Karma corrects.

“Better not go around saying that,” Ohiko takes a sip of his coffee, “word of your marriage got round to HR. Apparently you’re famously available.” He sounds annoyed. Karma’s still grateful for the “one letter a day” instruction Ohiko sent to the office mailroom, after tripping over the bag of chocolates and notes left by Karma’s desk after Valentine’s.  

“Sorry I’m adorable,” Karma jokes.

“You should be,” Ohiko grumbles. He takes a glance at the page Karma has open. “What’s your husband working as? Manager? Receptionist? CEO?”

“Actually, yes?” Karma says, “He’s the. Uh. CEO.”

“Your non-legal husband is Asano Gakushuu?”

“You know him?” Karma asks.

“Who doesn’t?” Ohiko says, actually sounding impressed, “he interned in Finance back in high school. Rewrote the algorithm used for our file sorting database and came up with a new calculation system that’s still being revised in the department.”

“He never told me that,” Karma says. “I mean, I know about the internship part, not the others. Wait, you were working here 11 years ago?”

Ohiko scowls. “How old do you think I am, boy?”

“I don’t know, late thirties?” Karma squints, “wait, how old are you?”

“You’re what, 28?” Ohiko snorts, “get out of here.”

“What’s your secret?” Karma says, but he’s already on his feet.

“Not giving a fuck,” Ohiko tells him.

\--

Two days later, Karma receives a call from “Hubby <3<3<3”. 

“Hey babe,” he says. 

“This is the second work-related email you’ve sent me,” Gakushuu says, “can’t you just text for a hookup like a normal person?”

“This is an actual work related issue,” Karma says, “the MNC policies have been revised, and your company checks out, so I sent you an email to inform you of that fact.”

“You sent me, ‘you look good,’ with a heart emoticon, and you signed it ‘Karma Akabane, official government employee on official business’.”

“It’s true,” Karma grins, even though he knows Gakushuu won’t see it.

“Please tell me you sent normal emails to everyone else,” Gakushuu says.

“Of course,” Karma taps out something on his computer.

“I can’t show this to my investors,” Gakushuu groans, “can you please email me something professional?”

“Already did,” Karma says, just after clicking send. Gakushuu pauses across the line, then says, “this is a jpeg of an onion ring.”

“Ah, memories,” Karma sighs, “don’t get your panties in a twist, dear. I sent an actual official, legally binding email to your finance department, signed Karma Akabane, official government employee.”

There’s a longer pause on the line, then, “okay, checks out. What do you feel about dinner?”

“I love dinner,” Karma says, “dinner, or dinner-dinner?”

“I don’t know what the fuck that means,” Gakushuu says, “normal dinner. But, uhm, can you cook?”

Something warm flutters in Karma’s chest. “You called me up to ask me to cook for you?”

“I called you up because you sent me a fucking weird email,” Gakushuu immediately says, then his voice turns shy, “but I do miss your cooking.”

“When are you free?” Karma asks, “you’re the one with the terrible schedule.”

“Tonight?” Gakushuu asks.

“Kay,” Karma says. He starts mentally cataloguing the contents of his fridge. “At least I won’t keep wondering if you’re going to stand me up in my own kitchen,”

Gakushuu sounds genuine over the phone. “I’m so sorry about that,” he says, “I-”

“I know,” Karma interrupts, voice soft, “8 again, then? Or 9?”

“I don’t have a meeting today,” Gakushuu says, “8.”

“See you,” Karma says. When he hangs up, Megumi immediately peeps over the cubicle dividers. 

“Why are you smiling like that?” She demands, “got another date tonight?”

“None of your business,” Karma says, but he’s still grinning. She whines a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What if I wrote some really non pg-13 stuff? ;) (AHAH like, more non-pg13 than it already is.)  
> Like... not for this fic, I already set the tone for it. But for... others? ;) ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What am I on???  
> Hey again you guys

At 7.30, Karma’s simmering soup and he gets a call.

“Hey,” he says.

“Hey, it’s me,” Rukiyo says, “I need a favor.”

“Can it wait?” Karma glances at the clock. “Gakushuu is coming over in half an hour.”

“It’d take like, three seconds,” Rukiyo says, “I need you to give me a number between 1 and 10.”

Karma blinks. “Uh, 7?”

“Hm,” Rukiyo says, and hangs up.

Karma stares at his phone, bewildered, but there’s no time to attempt to decrypt the inner workings of Rukiyo’s mind as his phone rings again. 

“Hey baby,” he says.

“Hi, I need your help,” Gakushuu starts.

“3,” says Karma.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Uh, okay. Do you have a drawing tablet in your house?”

“Uh, yeah,” Karma says, “why?”

“I need it,” Gakushuu grumbles, “see you in a bit.”

Karma looks at the screen, brows furrowed. What’s with the super weird requests from his friends?

As if on cue, Rukiyo calls again. Karma answers it.

“Another number from 1 to 10,” she says.

“8,” Karma says, “What is this for?”

“Another one,” she says.

“2?”

“I don’t have a 10 sided die,” Rukiyo says, like it’s obvious.

“You could google a random number generator?” 

“Eh,” she says. “This is more fun. You’re random enough. Next?”

“4,” Karma says, “really?”

“Last one.”

“9.”

“Hm. Thanks,” she says, and hangs up.

When Karma’s setting the tables, he’s abruptly reminded of his “honeymoon”. He and Gakushuu had rented a chalet and had defiled pretty much every part of it, but mealtimes had Karma whipping up amazing food and Gakushuu making emergency calls to make sure his company was still running, and then sometimes sneaking up on each other with a hug from the back and kiss on the neck.

It’s kind of weird, Karma thinks absently, how they immediately grew accustomed to each other again in that one week and three days such that Karma felt weird in an empty bed for a while after that. Maybe it was the break from their own hectic lives and that odd sense of peace that faux-domestic life brought them.

The doorbell rings. Gakushuu is there, and Karma tugs him in by the belt. Something that hasn’t changed since high school is that Gakushuu is still an amazing kisser. 

To be fair, both of them started off awkward and inexperienced. They just had tons of practice together.

“Miss me?” Gakushuu drawls.

“You wish,” Karma bites back, playfully. 

“Looks like you did,” Gakushuu teases. He shuts the door behind him, and throws his briefcase and self on the couch. 

“Go take a shower,” Karma swats at him.

Later, sitting across each other at the table, Karma absently scrolling through his chats and bombarded by the spam of high school Gakushuu pictures, is struck by how much the both of them changed.

How much Gakushuu had changed. He’d lost the stick he had in his ass from middle school, something Karma is sure is because of Gakuhou’s change of heart and Karma’s involvement in his life.

“What?” Gakushuu asks, eyebrow raised.

Karma rests his cheek on his hand and smiles. “Character development,” he says.

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. “I never understand you,” he says without heat. After dinner, Gakushuu does the dishes and them commandeers Karma’s drawing tablet to start sketching designs of something or other, and Karma lounges on the couch next to him and plays a game on his phone. 

Karma’s pretty sleepy when Gakushuu finally sends his last email and stretches.

“Ngh,” Karma says.

“Sleepyhead,” Gakushuu calls him.

“Ngh,” Karma repeats, and rolls over to bury his face in the wedge between the couch and Gakushuu’s thigh.

Karma feels a hand run play with his hair, and contented humming coming from Gakushuu. It feels kind of nice so he closes his eyes a little.

When Karma opens them again he’s in bed, and Gakushuu is on his phone seated next to him. 

“Ngh,” Karma says.

“Go to sleep,” Gakushuu tells him. He starts stroking Karma’s hair again, and yeah, Gakushuu does make a compelling argument.

\--

If they hadn’t broken up, Karma thinks, if they kept a long distance relationship, would this be a permanent occurrence? 

Maybe they would’ve gotten sick of each other and broken up long before that. Part of why this arrangement worked out, was because it was a once-in-a-while thing that both of them indulged in like a treat. 

Like playing house, as a game. A chance to feel domestic before being swept up in paperwork and meetings. 

Next to Karma, Gakushuu stirs. He blinks bearily at Karma and rubs his eyes.

“Since when do you wake up so early?”

“You haven’t seen me in a year,” Karma says, voice sounding flat even to himself, “and you haven’t seen me for 8 years before that. Anything can happen.”

Gakushuu squints. “What are you talking about?”

Karma opens his mouth. Closes it.

Opens it again. “How many people have you dated?”

Gakushuu thinks for a bit. “6.”

It kind of stings, for an inexplicable reason, even though Karma has dated around that many, too. 

“How about during the year? After we met?”

“No one,” Asano says, “I was too busy with the company. Why are you asking?”

Karma tries to keep his voice light. “Just curious.”

“Hm,” say Gakushuu, “I have half an hour before my alarm rings and I’m not leaving this bed. Got any ideas?”

He sounds tired. Karma’s pretty lethargic, too.

“Let’s play checkers,” Karma says. 

“Do you have a checkers board next to your bed?” Gakushuu asks lazily.

Karma downloads an app on his phone, and both of them tie with 2 games each, until Gakushuu’s alarm rings.

“I demand a rematch,” Gakushuu says. He gives Karma a peck on the lips and heads to the bathroom. 

Karma watches him go, then texts Nagisa and Akari in the groupchat, “SOS.”

Akari’s awake, but she’s in a different time zone. “???”

“Gakushuu Asano is in my house,” Karma texts.

“And this is news, why?” Akari types. 

“Show some sympathy.”

“I’m cold and unfeeling,” Akari replies, “but seriously, is your relationship with Asano weirding you out now?”

Karma scowls. “What does that mean?” 

“Well,” Akari types, “it’s not like you two have a particularly complicated relationship. Both of you are single, have history together, and now you two are friends with benefits.”

“I guess,“ Karma says.

Akari’s typing speech bubble appears, then disappears. Then she sends, “I guess if it’s making you feel weird, you two need to set boundaries.”

“Like what?” 

“I don’t know, whatever you feel weird about. Talk it out, you two are grown ups. Got to go.”

Karma stares at his phone. 

\--

“How do you set boundaries?”

“What are you on about?” Ohiko glares.

“You seem like a man with a lot of boundary setting experience,” Karma muses, “you remind me of my old middle school teacher. He wasn’t really a teacher, more like a, uh, government agent? It was complicated.”

Ohiko stares judgmentally.

“Relationship boundaries,” Karma clarifies. 

Ohiki rubs at his temples. “Please leave.” 

“Teach,” Karma whines.

“This,” Ohiko gestures between them, “is me, boundary setting. “Your questions make me feel uncomfortable, so I tell you so. If you don’t respect that, you leave.”

Karma shuts his mouth. “Sorry,” he says, a little embarrassed, “thanks, sorry.” 

Ohiko softens. “You’re annoying, kid, but you’re... alright. Can stand to be less of a pest. Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Mostly,” Karma shrugs, “but partly because Megumi is being annoying again.”

“Lack of boundaries,” Ohiko says. Then, “is this about your non-legal husband?” 

Karma stares accusingly. “I thought you didn't gossip.”

“Do you know what the atmosphere in this office is right now?” Ohiko says irritably, “ Everyone wants to know about you and your elusive husband. Since you two aren’t legally married I don’t have to tell HR shit, but they assume that means I know who it is.”

“You do know who it is,” Karma points out, and gets a glare. 

“You’re going to be the death of me,” Ohiko mutters.

Karma beams. “Thanks for your sacrifice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OoooOOOooooOooOOOooOoOOO


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I've been wasting my life on ao3.   
> Hello again my fellow fic-readers, how has life been?

Karma texts Gakushuu. “You busy?”

He gets a reply an hour later, finishing up the final part of the report he’s typing up. “Yes.”

Karma rests his head on his chin. “Too busy for dinner?”

This time the reply is immediate, probably because Gakushuu is already on his phone. “Actually, yes. Sorry.”

Karma frowns. “Have you been eating?”

He was always kind of shit at taking care of himself, even back in highschool. Karma doubts that changed.

“Enough,” says Gakushuu.

Karma frowns. “Take care of yourself,” he types. 

“Thanks.”

Karma stares at his phone a bit, head spinning, then goes back to his report, but his heart’s just not in it. 

“I miss my husband,” he tells Nagisa and Akari. Nagisa replies 10 minutes later, “when was the last time you saw him?”

“Like last week,” Karma says.

“I haven’t seen you for longer than that,” Nagisa says.

“I miss you too,” Karma replies, “and we talk super often. Gakushuu’s always busy.”

“Life of being a CEO,” Nagisa replies. 

“How are your kids? They kill you yet?”

“The other day,” Nagisa answers, “Homira tried to stab me with a pencil. He and Yuukio are making great progress with their physics because of all the catapults they’re designing to try and shoot me.”

Nagisa sounds fond, even over text. A beatific smile breaks out on Karma’s face. “How’s mini me?”

“A disaster, and please don’t call her that. I get enough nightmares without the association. Talk to you later, their break ends soon.”

Karma smiles, a little. Then his mind drifts to Gakushuu and he feels a little sad again.

\--

“I think,” Kabaya says, waving a hand around, “you need less shots.”

“I’m not drunk,” Karma whines.

Rukiyo takes the glass from Karma’s hands, and downs it. Then slumps over on the table in their booth.

“Both of you, stop,” Kabaya says.

“Boo,” Rukiyo slaps him.

Kabaya wrestles her to the bench. A few people glance over but Rukiyo is giggling and lets Kabaya pin her, who then bundles her up in his jacket. 

“I’m so glad both of you aren’t crazy drunks,” Kabaya mutters. Karma giggles, and pokes his cheek.

“I want onion rings,” Karma says.

“Onion rings,” Rukiyo echoes.

“Remember the last time you were drunk with onion rings?” Kabaya mutters. Karma doesn’t really remember, but Kabaya orders onion rings anyways so it’s a win for him.

Onion rings. That reminds Karma of someone. 

“Hey, gimmie that,” Kabaya says. He reaches over to snatch the phone from Karma’s hands, but Karma is quicker.

The call connects. Karma hears a nice and warm voice and it makes him happy.

“Hey! Hi!”

“Are you drunk?” The voice sounds amazed.

“Your voice sounds awesome,” Karma informs the person on the phone.

“Is there anyone with you?” 

“Yes,” Karma says.

Voice pauses for a beat. Then, “who?” 

“Ishuyuko Kabaya and Kirata Rukiyo,” Karma recites dutifully.

“Can you pass the phone to Ishuyuko?”

“Noooo,” Karma whines, “I don’t wanna. I wanna hear your voice.”

“Pass the phone to Ishukuyo Kabaya,” the nice voice cajoles, “I’ll buy you ice cream.”

Karma considers. “Promise?”

“Promise,” Voice sounds very amused.

“Kabaya! Voice wants to talk to you,” Karma says.

“Who?” Rukiyo asks.

“I dunno, I called the most recent person in my contacts,” Karma says, “words look funny, I can’t read.”

“I see two of you,” Rukiyo informs him, "two Karmas. What a nightmare."

"Hey!" Karma says.

“Uh huh,” Kabaya is saying, “yeah, both of them are wasted.”

“Hey!” Rukiyo says, offended, “I recycle.”

“So do I!” Karma insists.

“Sure, you both do,” Kabaya agrees, and that’s good enough for Karma.

“Can we have more onion rings?” Rukiyo asks.

Half a plate of onion rings later, and someone comes to their booth. Karma squints at him. “You look familiar.”

“Hello to you too,” the person says, “Hey, Ishuyuko, Kirata.”

“You look,” Rukiyo points, “like I know you.”

“I know, right?” Karma agrees. He squints and cocks his head, and funnily enough, the person mirrors his movement. Karma concentrates a little. He knows this person, he does.

Oh, oh!

“You look like my husband,” Karma says, “have you met him?”

“Really?” The person says.

“Uh huh,” Karma nods.

Kabaya says some stuff to the person who says stuff back, and then the person is pulling Karma to his feet. 

“Let go of me!” Karma protests. His head is spinning. 

“Stop making a scene!” The person snaps. 

“I’m married!” Karma whines, “I just told you that! He’s cuter than you!”

“You’re married to me, idiot,” The person says. 

Karma stops and thinks. “Is that why you look like him?”

“Is it?” The person sounds sarcastic.

Karma tilts his head left, right. “I dunno, you’re too blurry. If I married you, you’ll know this. How did I propose to my husband?” 

“With an onion ring,” the person says flatly.

Karma beams. “You do know!”

“I do,” the person says, “nice to know that you have enough sense to not go home with a stranger.”

Karma thinks for a moment. Then leans forward and bites his shoulder.

“Gah!” the person jumps back. “The hell?”

“Okay, you’re him,” Karma confirms, “Hi baby!”

“I can’t believe I agreed to marry this idiot,” Gakushuu mutters. Kabaya is laughing hysterically in the background and saying something like, “Rukiyo’s going to be so pissed she’s too drunk to appreciate this.”

“I missed you!” Karma says, “I haven’t seen you in so long!”

“Uh-huh,” says Gakushuu, “see you guys. Have fun with Kirata.”

“One of them is better than both,” Kabaya says.

Karma lets Gakushuu drag him away without protest. He’s fast asleep by the time he hits the backseat of the car.

\--

“You promised me ice cream,” Karma says over the phone, hangover ebbing away enough to give Karma a vague sense of recollection over last night. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” 

“I am,” Karma says, “where’s my ice cream?”

Gakushuu sighs over the line. “I’m very busy, okay? Can you do this some other time?”

Karma frowns. “You okay?”

He hears Gakushuu sigh. “Look, I’ll talk to you later.” The call cuts before Karma can reply, and he stares dejectedly at his phone.

Sure, he knows Gakushuu is busy and he shouldn't expect to be humored all the time. 

But it’s been almost two weeks since they’ve met up, not counting one day prior when Karma was too drunk to remember anything and Gakushuu was gone by the time he woke up with a splitting headache. 

Still, the abrupt rejection makes Karma mope a little. 

“You okay?” Isoe asks over lunch.

“Fine,” Karma shrugs.

Isoe tilts his head. “If you say so,” he says skeptically.

Karma watches him. “Hey, you got a girlfriend, right?”

“Uhm,” he says, “yeah.”

“You send her stuff while she’s at work?” Karma asks, “flowers, chocolate?”

Isoe blushes. “Sometimes?”

“She likes them?” 

“I sent her a bouquet for Valentine’s last year,” Isoe says, “she liked it, but said she got really bashful in front of her coworkers. She’s not a, uh, flaunty person.”

“And this year?” Karma takes a sip of strawberry milk.

“I actually just made her lunch?” Isoe says embarrassedly “I don’t cook very well but she liked, uh, the. Thought.”

Karma smiles at him. “She’s that lady I met last time in the lobby with you, right? She’s cute. You two look good together.”

Isoe blushes, again. “Thanks.”

Karma thinks. “I can teach you to cook, if you want.”

Isoe perks up. “Really? Damn, that pork you brought for that potluck we had was amazing.”

\--

It’s only after drawing a smiley face with chili sauce on the bento that Karma realizes what he’s doing.

He calls Nagisa.

“You’re hyperventilating,” Nagisa says calmly, “breathe. Okay, want to tell me what happened?”

“I don’t think I’m over him,” Karma says, distressed. He’s on the kitchen floor against his cupboard, his voice is breaking and he doesn’t know why. “I was going to send him lunch.”

“Karma,” Nagisa says gently.

“I asked one of my coworkers what he did for his girlfriend,” Karma runs his fingers through his hair, “And he said he made her lunch one time for Valentine’s even though he sucks at cooking. I made Gakushuu a bento and I drew a smiley on it and everything!”

“It’s okay,” Nagisa says, “breathe. Deep breathes, in, out, in, out.”

Karma does.

“Better?”

“Mhm.”

“You think you like Asano?” Nagisa asks.

“Yeah,” Karma says.

“Is it a crush? Or do you think you love him?” 

“I don’t know,” Karma buries his face in his hands, “I want to see him. I want to make him lunch and sleep in bed with him and kiss him in the morning before we go to work.”

There’s a thoughtful silence on Nagisa’s side, then he says, “I know you two had history together, and maybe you’re remembering all that while being together with him now, and it’s making you feel confused, but 8 years is a long time to be apart. Neither of you are the same person you were back in high school, and you’ve only known each other now for like, what, a month?”

Karma stays quiet.

“I mean, it’s possible you have a crush on him,” Nagisa continues, “i think you do. You started liking him because he was challenging and witty and cute, and I don’t think that’s changed much.”

Karma feel his heart beat, beat, beat. 

“I think I do have a crush on him,” Karma admits. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some emotion + plot development! Hope you liked it?   
> Haha okay I'm bored so you might see more recent (or at least longer) updates now.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi guys! Miss me! I'm so sleepy right now.

Karma thinks he deals with his crush pretty well, all things considered.

There’s not a lot on the internet that gives much insight to “have a crush on my husband”, or ex-husband, the way you look at it. Karma’s used to using both interchangeably because it didn’t matter back then when he was just making fun, but he thinks it kind of does now. 

Ugh, emotions. 

Luckily for Karma, he’s not a stranger to liking someone, especially Gakushuu. High school was a confusing fucking mess because liking Gakushuu was an entirely different from liking any other normal person, so it took a while for Karma to even figure out that he had a crush in the first place, by which time he’d been spending so much time with the boy they were practically dating. Their cohort certainly seemed to think so, very amusingly.

The problem was, Karma supposes, whether he wanted to continue liking Gakushuu, and whether Karma wanted to try to love him.

Gakushuu was a terribly hard person to love. To be fair, so was Karma. But he’d loved him once, so Karma figures it wouldn’t be hard to love him again.

Sheesh. His inner monologue makes Karma sound like he’s a jilted lover. Their high school relationship had been just a short walk away from casual. He hadn’t been particularly bothered by their breakup, like he foresaw it when they first got together. Entirely different paths and goals for the future, entirely different mindsets and outlooks on life. 

They both knew it. That’s why their relationship was so, well, light. 

Karma sighs. 

He’d eaten the bento he made for Gakushuu for dinner that night, whilst thinking of Gakushuu’s expression if he’d been the one to eat it instead. 

Karma dials Nagisa, who picks up on the third ring.

“Hey,” Nagisa greets, “still conflicted?”

“It’s not going to work out,” Karma tells him, “he’d going back to America, and then I’ll never see him again.”

Nagisa is silent, thinking.

“Rukiyo said something smart the other day,” Karma says, and Nagisa gives an amused huff on his side of the line. Rukiyo could be perceptive at times but it’s always unexpected when she was, and funny to think about. “She said, if I wanted to continue being friends with Asano, I would have kept in touch with him all those years ago, or even last year.”

“What do you think about that?” Nagisa says.

“That even if I do like him, enough to marry him apparently,” Karma says, “it’s just an in-the-moment thing, and afterwards I just stop liking him, and won’t care enough to bother to reach out.”

This time, Nagisa’s silence sounds hesitant. “I mean, you two are pretty, uh, passionate,” Nagisa says, “um, most of your relationship with him had been spurred by spontaneity.”

“But?” Karma prompts.

“You two… did get married,” Nagisa points out.

Karma chews on his bottom lip. “What are you saying?”

“Normal people don’t get married after a week of reconciliation,” Nagisa says, “I mean, you two aren’t exactly normal, but.”

Karma stares at the ceiling. “You’re saying I didn’t stop liking him after we broke up,” he guesses.

“Possibly?” Nagisa says, “I mean, I wouldn’t know. I doubt spending one week with him made you re-develop feelings just like that. Okay, maybe it did, but if you decided you liked him enough to marry him, I don’t know if I believe it’s just from that one week. And that goes for him, too, I guess. You two are, uh, spontaneous, but not impulsive. I don’t know if what I’m saying makes sense.”

“I kinda get it,” Karma says, “let me think. I’m going to hang up now.”

“Kay,” Nagisa says, “Bye.”

\--

Karma sends Gakushuu another email. 

He sends it from his personal email this time, because Ohiko had chewed him out for using his government official email to send images of foodstuffs to CEOs of multinational companies. It’s the universal product code of the brand of strawberry milk he likes, and Karma doesn’t sign his name off but it won’t be too hard to guess who he is.

Sure enough, he gets a call later that evening.

“Did you get yelled at for spamming me with your government email?” Is the first thing Gakushuu says.

Karma snorts. “Fuck you.”

There’s a pause on the line, then Gakushuu says, “you free next Sunday?’

Karma frowns. 

“Sure,” Karma says.

There’s another pause on the line. Then Gakushuu says, “okay, what’s wrong?”   
Karma scowls.

“I can hear you sulking,” Gakushuu says.

Karma scowls harder. Fuck Gakushuu and his intuition for all things Karma. They only dated for 2 years, what the fuck.

“Is this about me hanging up on you?” Gakushuu sounds long-suffering, when Karma stays quiet for too long. “You’re such a child.”

“Then you’re a pedophile,” Karma snaps back.

“What is up with you?” Gakushuu says, “I’m busy, you know that.”

“I do,” Karma says hotly, “I just-” He stops himself, and shuts his mouth.

Missed you, he almost said. Karma’s face burns. He knows that Gakushuu knows what he was going to say. 

Gakushuu sounds softer when he says, “sunday? We can make a whole day out of it. Go get ice cream.”

“Don’t you have work?” Karma says weakly.

“I’ll take leave,” Gakushuu says, “the company won’t miss me for a day.”

Karma’s flustered. He presses the end-call button. He knows how this whole thing goes, they’ve done it twice now, but it’s not helping his emotional conflict. If anything, he feels his crush grow. 

Karma’s fairly certain, like 78% sure, Gakushuu doesn’t reciprocate. Gakushuu had agreed to fucking marry him, after all, but being ignored for three weeks made Karma reconsider.

Then this whole, taking leave to hang out with Karma and maybe fuck him into a couch? Just. Unfair.

Karma bites his lip. He drops it down to 63%.

Wait. Gakushuu did come to pick up drunk him. 54%.

Maybe that was because Karma drunk-dialed him? Obligation and all that, and there was no way Kabaya could manage both of them anyhow. 59%.

But fuck, Gakushuu sprinted to get to their date. 57%.

56%?

Maybe he just likes sprinting, who knows?

\--

Next sunday, or this sunday, more accurately today, comes too quickly for Karma’s liking. He’s still in emotional turmoil, such as whether or not his husband likes him back.

Ex-husband?

They didn’t set a time, but Karma groans when his phone rings at 6 in the morning. Of-fucking-course.

Karma debates leaving Gakushuu on his doorstep, then decides against it. It’s not the crush talking, it’s the fact that Gakushuu would lock-pick his way in and probably trash his living room angrily.

“You’re so cute when you’re sleepy and angry,” Gakushuu laughs at his bedhead when he opens the door.

Karma’s face burns, so he hides it in the duvet he dragged out of his room. Fucking feelings, fucking crush.

“Go back to sleep,” Gakushuu says, rolling his eyes. 

“The fuck you came at 6?” Karma snaps.

“To piss you off,” Gakushuu says, annoyingly cheerful. He dumps a bag of… something, on Karma’s couch, it sounds heavy but Karma’s too pissed and sleepy to deal with it.  

Karma glares. Gakushuu laughs, and wraps his arms around Karma, who doesn’t have time to process what was happening before he’s picked up and carried to his bed. 

Gakushuu’s in a soft hoodie and sweatpants which should give Karma the idea that he’s planning to join him in bed to actually sleep. Which makes Karma blush again, but what the fuck, they literally had sex, this should not something he should be embarrassed about. 

Gakushuu runs his fingers through Karma’s hair and yep, letting that man into his life was Karma’s biggest mistake. He buries his face in Gakushuu’s chest to hide his red face and Gakushuu’s vibrating laughter is kind of soothing, so Karma’s back to sleep almost immediately.

When Karma wakes up again, Gakushuu’s in the kitchen. Karma’s the better cook but it’s not like Gakushuu is bad in any way, and clearly knows how all of Karma’s favorite foods are prepared, and it’s kind of saying something that Karma’s taste in food hasn’t changed in 10 years.

Or taste in men, apparently. Whatever.

“What’s in the bag?” Karma asks, awake enough to remember it.

“A bunch of stuff,” Gakushuu shrugs. Karma stares in suspicion.

Breakfast is uneventful, and then Gakushuu drags the duffel to the dining table. He pulls out two nerf guns.

“What,” says Karma.

“What,” says Gakushuu.

“What,” says Karma, again.

“Well?” Gakushuu says, sounding impatient.

Karma stares. He narrows his eyes. Then snatches one, and bolts.

Karma wins, barely. Gakushuu is a good shot, which is pretty unfair and also a little terrifying, given that Karma’s the one with actual assassin training. 

“What else you have in your bag of tricks?” Karma asks, leaning against the table with his cheek against his palm.

Gakushuu rummages and pulls out carving knives, and blocks of soap.

A laugh bubbles in Karma’s throat. “Really?”

They’re both competitive as all heck, so an activity meant to be calming and therapeutic turns into another challenge. This time Karma wins easily, he’s far more skilled with a knife. He fashions a rose while Gakushuu does a bird, which isn’t any less impressive but it’s clear that Karma’s is far more detailed.

It wastes a good part of their morning, and Gakushuu, somehow determined to make this date of a day as random and fun as possible and succeeding in romancing Karma while at it, pulls them out for lunch at an expensive hipster restaurant.

Karma gets two crackers served in a bowl of rocks, a single grape in a flute of champagne on top of ice in what he supposes is deconstructed wine, a normal serving of salad on a slab of marble, half a regular serving of a fillet of steak on what seems to be a contemporary art sculpture, and pasta in an origami creation made of more pasta.

Karma is absolutely delighted. He sends the pictures to everyone he bothers to save in his contacts, so even Ohiko gets them. He sends back a “what the fuck”, which just makes Karma’s day.

They don’t get dessert because Gakushuu is hell bent on fulfilling his promise of ice cream that he insists has to be normal, even though Karma kind of wants to see how they would serve ice cream. 

Karma drags his husband-ex husband-friend with benefits-lover to a place he’d never seen before on the side of the street. Gakushuu’s a little hesitant, but Karma wants ice cream, fuck him. 

Then Karma finds out why Gakushuu is acting weird.

“B-boss?” The man standing at the counter in the middle of collecting his sweet, looks up and does a double-take. As do some of the people milling around. Right, Karma thinks belatedly, Gakushuu’s office building isn’t far.

“Hello,” Gakushuu greets mildly. “I’m on leave today, so no need to be this formal.” 

Karma stands a little awkwardly to Gakushuu’s side, but snickers at that. Like anyone would drop their formalities with this man.

There’s a burst of chatter from his employees. Gakushuu raises an eyebrow at Karma, who then realizes their hands are still linked, but the look on Gakushuu’s face is just acceptance and amusement. So Karma goes with it.

He pulls Gakushuu to the counter and stares at the flavors on display. “What do you recommend?”

“Why are you asking me?” Gakushuu says.

“You’ve been here before,” Karma points out, “clearly. So, what do you like?”

“All of them are good,” Gakushuu hums thoughtfully.

“Well I can’t eat all of them,” Karma says, “pick something for me.”

“Since when do you trust my taste?” Gakushuu asks. Karma stares flatly at him.

Gakushuu smiles back. That fucker is messing with him.

Karma would cross his arms, but he and Gakushuu are still holding hands, which is kind of funny. It’s clearly freaking out Gakushuu’s employees, many of whom are on their phones frantically typing. Others are gaping openly.

“Well, what’s your favourite?” Karma asks.

Gakushuu glances lazily at the display, then shrugs. Karma taps his foot impatiently, he really does want ice cream, and everything looks good. He thinks he’ll actually just get every single flavor if Gakushuu doesn’t make a choice soon. Karma says just that.

Gakushuu’s expression doesn’t really change, but there’s a glint in his eye that Karma knows all too well. 

“Wait-” Karma tries, but Gakushuu is already talking to the cashier. And seems to be ordering, well, every single flavor.

A smaller, sampler portion of each. But, still.

“Are you insane?” Karma says.

Gakushuu looks at him, then smiles brilliantly that makes Karma’s heart stutter. “This day is about you,” Gakushuu says, sounding uncharacteristically bashful and sweet and Karma knows it’s a fucking act for his employees, it is, but he blushes deep red anyways, and someone in the background shrieks a little. 

Karma’s face is red. They’re seated in a booth tucked away in a corner, not like they’re unnoticed but it does give them slightly more privacy, in the sense that everyone is still staring very pointedly at them but at least they’re not in the centre of the room. “The hell you did that for?” Karma hisses, embarrassed.

“I’m not ashamed of my relationships,” Gakushuu shrugs, “my employees can go out with whoever they want as long as they do their job, and so can I.” He says this loud enough that anyone paying an ear of attention to them would hear it.

Then Gakushuu leans forward, “there are rumors I’m having relations with some of my, ah, board members because I’m too young to hold CEO,” he points out quietly. It probably looks like he’s telling Karma something sappy.

Ah. Karma winces a little, then, “wait, but I’m a government employee.”

“Not a high enough ranking one to matter,” Gakushuu says, but bumps Karma’s knee to say that it’s not meant to offend. 

“So I’m your fake boyfriend?” Karma smiles a little wobbily, “I thought these only happened in fanfics.”

“I’m not going to take you to my family’s holiday lodge for a week,” Gakushuu rolls his eyes. 

“I’m a guy,” Karma says.

“I went on a few dates with men in America,” Gakushuu says, “Japan is progressive.”

“But I’m not your first choice to play fake spouse,” Karma says. 

“Mhm,” Gakushuu agrees. Karma knows but it still stings.

Gakushuu feels the change in Karma’s mood. Of fucking course he does. “You’re my real spouse, idiot,” Gakushuu says gently, like it actually means something.

46%, Karma thinks a little hysterically.

\--

A nap, Karma thinks, seems really good about now. 

Gakushuu says he has chess, what a fucking nerd. Karma kind of likes chess with Gakushuu, he’s the only one who agrees to play asshole chess with him, and sometimes they play some weird version of chess with their own terrains and rules and boards and everything that the both of them made up in highschool to amuse themselves and apparently Gakushuu fucking kept their handwritten book of rules? 

But Karma wants to sleep the feelings away. Doesn’t really work when Feelings are currently in bed next to him, but Feelings is warm and knows the right way to cuddle Karma and if there’s a choice between sleeping with Feelings and without, and Karma’s talking about actual sleeping here, does he really have a choice?

Which brings them to Gakushuu slowly patting Karma’s hair to sleep.

“Hey,” Karma says softly.

“Hm?” Gakushuu asks.

Karma bites the bullet. “Do you like me?”

“We’re married,” Gakushuu says. 

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Karma almost snaps. He pulls back from Gakushuu’s chest, and immediately misses the contact.

Gakushuu watches him impassively. “Where is this coming from?” He asks.

Karma sighs. “I have a crush on you,” he says, then feels a little silly. They’ve done this whole admittance of feelings before, dated before, and said fucking wedding vows. Shitty vows, but still. Bringing up a crush had seemed overwhelming but was a little anticlimactic, in hindsight.

Gakushuu is quiet for a while, then he says, “okay.”

“Okay?” Karma stares at him incredulously, “is that what you’re saying?”

“What do you want me to say?” Gakushuu asks, a little irritated.

Karma doesn’t know. He flushes. “Well,” Karma says, “i don’t know. Something!”

Gakushuu frowns. He sits up and so does Karma, and Gakushuu folds his hands in his lap. “I don’t know where you want this to go, Karma. I could say I like you back and we’ll start dating again, but we both know how this is going to end.”

Karma does. It still sinks like a stone in his belly, though.

“Well, I mean, I know but, ugh,” Karma tries. Then falls silent, and purses his lips.

Gakushuu watches him for a little longer, places a hand under Karma’s chin, tilts his head upwards, and kisses him. 

“I like you,” Gakushuu says when he pulls back, “but you already know that. I wouldn’t have married you if I didn’t. We both know how this is going to end, not even getting married kept us together, and it’s a little strange to enter a relationship with a deadline, but we both want fun from each other and our arrangement works out. It’s not like we can put a normal label on what we have, but I suppose I’d like to call you my boyfriend, and I’m okay with this not going anywhere, if you are.”

Karma’s heart flutters the same way a bird does when its cage is rattled. “Okay,” he agrees.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank insomnia, r/wewantplates and the amazing amazingness that is Karushuu.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter!

So they’re ex-boyfriends, boyfriends, ex-husbands, and husbands all at the same time. Gakushuu was right with the labels thing. 

Monday morning sees Karma beaming as he steps into his workplace, and he’s immediately hounded by Megumi, who’s gossip radar is beeping off the charts.

“You got laid!” Megumi says, excitedly.

Karma’s too happy to be irritated. “Nope,” he says.

“But you met your husband?” Megumi says.

“Yep,” Karma says.

“What did you two do?” She asks.

Karma thinks. “We played chess.”

Megumi wrinkles her nose. “That’s…”

“Actually kind of sweet,” Fuuro says, a few tables away. “My husband thinks it’s boring to play board games.”

Megumi glares at her. Karma turns around and gives Fuuro a thumbs up.

“So when do we get to meet this elusive husband of yours?” Megumi says.

Karma whacks her fingers again. She draws them back from the divider and crosses her arms. “You already met him,” Karma says.

“That doesn’t count!” Megumi whines, “I barely saw his face. All I know is that he’s a blond.”

“A blond and a redhead would probably make cute babies,” Fukuda says.

“I hate to break it to you about men and reproduction,” Karma says.

“Anyone with Karma would make cute babies,” Hirata says a little dreamily. Her crush on Karma was pretty obvious and she’s been sulking since the reveal of Karma’s apparent wedding to a man.

“Can we at least know his name?” Megumi demands. The office erupts in curious chatter. 

Karma doesn’t even need to think. “No,” he says.

\--

At lunch, he gets a screenshot of a forum page from who seems to be a very entertained Gakushuu.

“Nobody knows who you are,” is the accompanying caption, “this is amazing.” The screenshot in question was an image of Gakushuu and Karma, legs tangled in their corner booth in the ice cream parlor, Karma grinning and Gakushuu smiling back softly. It seems to have been posted on the company forum discussion page, and the comments are mostly attempts to guess his identity and laments that the CEO was no longer single.

“OMG,” Karma texts back, “send me the link.”

Gakushuu does. It requires a login ID and a password. 

Karma sends Gakushuu a emoji of the middle finger. Gakushuu sends back his login ID.

Karma sends Gakushuu a second middle finger. Gakushuu goes offline. 

It takes a few tries, but it turns out the password is Karma’s fucking phone number, which Karma gets right by thinking “what is the one thing no one but Gakushuu would know, that he knows I would too?” 

Karma’s a little flattered.

He scrolls through the forum gleefully, looking at the frankly ridiculous guesses ranging from a prince of a foreign country (he was clearly Japanese) to heir of a rival company that Gakushuu is trying to seduce to get a merger of.

He lets out a bark of laughter at the guesses about him being an assassin.

“What’s so funny?” Isoe asks, sliding in next to Karma. 

“The hubby sent me a funny meme,” Karma says, pocketing his phone. 

“Did the bento work?” Isoe asks.

“It gave me a crisis,” Karma says,

“Huh?” Isoe was so confused, it was endearing.

“After making a bento, I realized I had a crush,” Karma admits.

Isoe furrows his brows. “On your husband?”

A smile tugs at the sides of Karma’s lips. “Yep.”

“That’s great!” Isoe says, still looking incredibly confused but genuinely happy for Karma, “I’m glad you, uh, figured out you like him. Your husband. Who you married?”

“Same,” Karma agrees.

\--

“You both are a mess,” Rukiyo says, on their monthly bar haunts. She’s well into her third margarita and already lost her inhibition, which is saying a lot given that sober Rukiyo hardly has any.

“At least I’m married,” Karma retorts.

“You’re doing all this topsy turvy,” Rukiyo says. She leans against Kabaya and squints at the lights. “Everything is topsy turvy.”

Kabaya’s technically the designated sober friend, but all of them drink. Kabaya just holds his liquor better and prefers to drink less, so he ends up being the Karma-Rukiyo manager despite being buzzed himself. Currently he’s making sure both of them stay upright.

Karma faceplants into Rukiyo’s lap and groans. Rukiyo pats his hair.

“It’s not my fault,” Karma whines.

“You have the weirdest taste in guys,” Rukiyo says. 

:”I do not,” Karma says. He gets up and scans the bar. “None of them are as cute as my hubby.”

“Your hubby is cute,” Rukiyo nods approvingly, “very good. But personality wise, he’s weird.”

Karma wracks his brain for a reply, and settles with, “You’re weird!”

“Hey,” Kabaya says, “it’s getting late. Karma, do you want to call Asano?”

“Hm?” Karma says, “why?”

“To pick you up,” Kabaya says, the same time Rukiyo says, “because you miss him!”

Karma thinks. “I don’t need him to pick me up,” he says, “but I do miss him.”

There’s a sigh from Kabaya, and then one from Gakushuu when he arrives with a exasperated expression.

“Hubby!” Karma says. The outburst draws attention from some of the patrons, most of whom are regulars used to the trio’s monthly visits but intrigued with the newcomer, who seems to be Karma’s fucking husband, what the fuck.

“Time to go,” Gakushuu rolls his eyes. Karma happily latches onto him. He doesn’t remember getting home but he wakes up in his own bed with Gakushuu curled around him so that’s something, right? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmmmmmmm


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha hey you guys! I saw a comment that asked if this was the sequel to Reason and I forgot if I replied to it but anyways just here saying that it isn't! The Reason was supposed to be a fluff-filled fic with a self-indulgent ending that they end up together and don't split up (and get legally hitched HAHA) and live happily ever after after their high school graduation, and this fic is one where they don't stay together after high school. So imagine the prologue as literally any karushuu high school fic but just stop reading as soon as you get to the part where they end up together forever and ever.

Karma’s surprised it takes as long as he does. It’s been 10 years, but if there’s anything Karma remembers about his ex-principal Gakuhou Asano, is that he’s nosy and a meddler. 

Karma doesn’t expect the ex-principal (Karma really has to stop calling him that in his head) would show up at his workplace, but he does.

“A-asano,” Karma stammers, thrown off guard. 

“Ah, Akabane,” Gakuhou greets. He looks Karma up and down, and smiles.

Karma crosses his arms. He’s wearing one of Gakushuu’s button-ups since they’re about the same size anyways, and he knows that the ex-principal, no, Gakuhou, knows. 

“What are you doing here?” Karma asks cautiously, “does your son know you’re here?”

Karma wonders if Gakushuu ever told his dad about them. Gakuhou knew about their relationship in high school, but Karma doesn’t know if Gakushuu would divulge details of their very spontaneous wedding, or the fact that he’d been seeing Karma recently, and now, well, seeing Karma.

But then again, Gakuhou had always been adept at getting information out of his only son, a skill that Karma never managed to perfectly master.

“You know I’m here,” Gakuhou says, eyebrow raised.  

Karma turns red. Gakuhou is definitely teasing, and yep, he knows.

“It’s your lunch hour, no?” Gakuhou says. 

Karma awkwardly falls into step with Gakuhou, who leads the way towards the building cafeteria despite Karma actually working here. He can see curious glances from his acquaintances and offers some people a shrug.

“So what are you doing here?” Karma asks, once they’ve settled with food. They’re left alone but Karma’s colleagues are staring, not that Gakuhou seems to mind, but Karma expects tons of questions after lunch.

“Can’t I come say hi?” Gakuhou says casually.

“Not like you to drop by unannounced,” Karma says, but no, it was exactly like Gakuhou to drop by unannounced. Gakushuu had rolled his eyes the first time Gakuhou let himself into Karma's house and started making small talk with his parents, and said that his father liked messing with people like that.

“Maybe I just wanted to have a nice chat with my son-in-law,” Gakuhou says.

Karma blushes, again. “So you know.”

“That boy can’t keep a secret from me,” Gakuhou says. “I’d have to say I’m not exactly surprised that he seeked you out the moment he landed in Japan.”

Karma scratches the back of his head. “Well actually I sent an email to him first?” 

“Technicalities,” Gakuhou waves his hand, “so you’re where he’s disappearing to those nights?”

“Yea,” Karma says, “he told you?”

“You two went on an ice cream date,” Gakuhou says in explanation.

“Right,” Karma thinks. The forum. There's no doubt Gakuhou is keeping tabs on his son, Gakushuu had probably been mum about the whole thing.

“He always had a knack for charming people,” Gakuhou sighs in a way that’s a little wistful and a little sad, “I don’t think he realizes it and knows what he's doing, sometimes.”

“He knows what he’s doing with me,” Karma says softly.

“He most definitely does not,” Gakuhou snorts, “that boy is clueless as a rock. Knew something was up the first time he came home with Akabane this, Akabane that, and it took a whole year for him to realize he was head over heels. Came home a week ago freaking out about feelings, turns out it was just about you.”

Karma’s pleased. He thinks he does a shit job at hiding it.

Gakuhou smiles at him. “My boy’s stupid,” he says affectionately, “take care of him, would you?”

The rest of lunch is small talk and catching up on a decade of life updates, and even brief nostalgic mentions of Kunugigaoka and the early stages of Karma and Gakushuu’s relationship, and Korosensei. 

\--

As expected, Karma’s ambushed the moment Gakuhou leaves.

“Who the hell was that?” Megumi demands, hands on her hips, like Karma actually owes her anything.

Karma stares so hardly that Megumi’s a little unnerved. She takes a wary step back behind Isoe but continues asking.

The general chatter in the office is all about Karma’s mystery visitor, and Ohiko strolls past and rolls his eyes pointedly at Karma’s direction, which Karma takes to mean “good luck”. 

“He’s not actually your husband, is he? God, he’s so old! You were totally blushing!” Megumi screams.

“Ew! Gross!” Karma actually gags at the thought, “No, idiot! He’s my father-in-law!”

“Oh!” Megumi’s eyes light up, “shit, I should’ve asked him who you were married to!”

“You should’ve done no such thing,” Karma says.

Megumi pouts, and she flounces off to do whatever Megumi things she does in her free-time. Or work-time.

Karma doesn’t expect to be cornered by Yamamura, who’s one of the most soft-spoken in the office that Karma had barely exchanged more than greetings with, and but he does. “That’s your father-in-law?” She says.

Karma raises an eyebrow. “...yes.”

“Oh my god!” She gasps, and her voice drops to a whisper, “I was from Kunugigaoka!”

Karma’s eyes widen. “Were you?” 

Yamamura nods earnestly. “Uh huh! That means you’re married to Asano Gakushuu! I was two years your junior, you wouldn’t have heard of me but everyone knew who you two were! Oh my god! You two were so cute! There were rumors that both of you broke up after graduating but I guess they’re not true, married, oh gosh!”

Karma laughs a little nervously. “Well, don’t-”

“-Tell Megumi, of course,” Yamamura winks, “your secret is safe with me!”

\--

“Oh my god,” Gakushuu says, sounding mortified, “I can’t believe - give me a moment.”

Karma waits. He hears Gakushuu holler “jesus, dad!” to someone in the background, voice distant enough to know that the phone has been put down. There’s an exchange over the line and Karma can only hear Gakushuu’s side of the conversation, which goes like this:

“You can’t bother Karma during his working hours!”

“If you wanted to meet him you could just tell me!”

“Dad!”

“No, why would you do that, I, no!”

“I’m a fucking grown up I can date whoever I want - yes! Yes, I can marry whoever I goddamn want - we didn’t actually marry, holy shit-”

“What do you mean meet the parents you’ve met him tons of times?!”

“We didn’t have witnesses, it wasn’t goddamn legal!”

“Yes, if I get married again I’ll fucking tell you, are you happy now?”

“Are you insane? Absolutely not!”

“Fine!”

There’s a rustle on the line and Gakushuu comes back on. “Come over for dinner,” he says, “when are you free?”

“When are you?” Karma asks, “I have office hours and Sundays off.”

Gakushuu hums. “How about this Friday?” 

“Sure,” Karma says, “what time?”

“Hmm, 7?” Gakushuu says, “I don’t have anything late on that friday.”

“Sure,” Karma agrees, “if you stand me up, I can spend time with your dad.”

“I hate it when both of you are together,” Gakushuu mutters.

\--

“Hey, Karma,” Hirata says on a specific Friday afternoon, “happy hour tonight?”

“We have work tomorrow,” Fuuro says.

“Aww, come on, we’re all going,” Megumi says, “we won’t stay too late, just a few drinks.”

“I’ll pass,” Fuuro wrinkles her nose, “I have to get the kids settled in.”

“Same,” Karma says, “not the kids part. I have a dinner date.”

“Young love,” Fuuro sighs.

“You’re not much older than me,” Karma says.

“Everyone else is single. Makes me feel old,” Fuuro says, “my husband and I don’t have the energy to go on such regular dates anymore. If you decide to have children, Akabane, you’ll understand.”

Karma thinks of him and Gakushuu as parents. He makes a face.

“So when will we meet the man whose unlucky enough to marry you?” Megumi whines.

“Or lucky enough,” Hirata corrects.

“How does the sex work?” Megumi asks.

“Oh god!” Isoe yelps, "We don't want to hear about that!"

“Don’t be shy,” Megumi waves a hand at him, "everyone has sex."

“I’m not discussing my sex life with you,” Karma’s appalled, “jesus, Megumi.”

“I’m starting to wonder how you people actually get any work done here,” Ohiko mutters, walking from his office to the pantry. “Megumi, gay porn exists with a few clicks on the internet.”

Megumi turns red. “Boss!” 

Karma snickers.

Then thinks for a moment.

\--

At 5.30, Karma’s closing up his laptop and listening to his coworkers discuss dinner plans, when his phone rings.

“Hey honey,” Karma says.

“You still at work?” Gakushuu asks.

“Yeah,” Karma says, “why?”

“Hm, I’ll pick you up,” Gakushuu says.

“What?” 

“I’m a few blocks over,” Gakushuu tells him, “I had a meeting.”

“Oh,” Karma says, “like, right now?”

“Give me 10,” Gakushuu answers, “see you.”

“Was that the husband?” Megumi is immediately over. Why was Karma seated across her again?

“Do I call anyone else honey?” Karma says. “I guess you’re going to get your wish. He’s picking me up.”

“Oh my god!” Megumi squeals. “When?”

“10 minutes.” 

“Guys! Karma’s husband is coming to pick him up in 10 minutes!” Megumi announces. Karma facepalms. 

Which is how Karma finds himself with an entourage at the lobby 8 minutes later, arms crossed. A few people are glancing over curiously, wondering about the large group milling around the pick-up point. Karma had forewarned Gakushuu with a text, to which he just replied “lol”. 

Whatever. Karma warned him.

Yamamura gives Karma a conspirative wink, and Karma wonders why she’s here because she already knows who Karma’s married to, but then Karma remembers that she’s supposed to be joining the rest for dinner.

“Do you think he’d remember me?” Yamamura fidgets a little, “I mean, okay, no. That’s silly.”

Karma stares at her for a moment. Then grins. “You had a crush on him.”

Yamamura turns red. “Everyone had a crush on him!” She protests. “Nevermind, we only met once.”

Karma remembers Gakushuu’s odd dedication to his student council duties, and the fact that he always seemed to know who everyone is. “You might be surprised,” Karma says. 

A car that’s way above Karma’s paygrade pulls up a bit aways. Karma immediately recognizes it. Everyone’s oo-ing and aahh-ing among themselves as Karma walks over. 

Karma knocks on the driver’s window and it rolls down. “I don’t think they’ll shut up if they don’t see your face,” he says.

Inside, Gakushuu looks amused. “Hey, /honey/,” he drawls.

Karma blushes a little. “You coming out to say hi or what?”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. When he steps out he immediately gives Karma a peck on the lips, like some romantic drama scene in a movie. He waves to Karma’s coworkers. “Fair you meet mine since I met yours,” Karma mumbles, and Gakushuu laughs at him.

“Hi!” Megumi says, sticking her hand out, “I’m Aina Megumi!”

“Gakushuu Asano, pleasure to meet you, Miss Megumi” Gakushuu says, taking her hand and smiling /that/ smile that works on Karma way too many times that he’d like to admit, and Karma’s the one who has immunity over the years. Karma bears witness to Megumi going through all six stages of having a crush on Gakushuu Asano at once.

“O-oh, hi-i,” she stammers again, suddenly blushing. 

Karma rolls his eyes. Gakushuu proceeds to absolutely charm every single one of his colleagues with a pretty grin and a nicely-delivered compliment or two, and even Isoe and Tanaka, who are most undoubtedly the straightest guys in the office, seem to have heart-eyes.

“Keiko Yamamura,” Gakushuu says, before Yamamura introduces herself, “it’s nice to see you again after all these years. How have you been?”

“H-hi Asano-senpai,” Yamamura says. Turns into a gooey mess.

“You’re killing them,” Karma complains.

“Sorry,” Gakushuu laughs, not sounding sorry at all. Because Gakushuu is unrepentantly an asshole, he kisses Karma again in front of the seven people who have a new crush on him.

Karma waves. “See you tomorrow.”

“B-bye Asano!” Megumi breaks out of her Gakushuu-spell. “Come pick Akabane up more often!”

“I can’t believe it! Karma’s husband is so cute! How did Karma end up with him?” Hirata squeals. Karma doesn’t know if he’s flattered or offended, but then decides he agrees. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what I'm writing. Oh god I feel my sanity slowly draining with each second that passes by.   
> Speaking of writing I'm working on something else hehehehheheheh so stay tuned I guess?


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi hi! Welcome back, how's life? Who here celebrated the lunar new year?

“Great, they’ll never leave me alone now,” Karma complains, “that’s all your fault.”

“You’re the one who wanted me to meet them,” Gakushuu says, pulling into his driveway. The house is the same Karma remembers, still way too big and way too fancy for the principal of a school, but makes sense now that Gakushuu is a CEO.

“I said meet them, not seduce them,” Karma protests.

“Aww, are you jealous?” Gakushuu teases.

“You’ll never find anyone as good as I am,” Karma tells him.

Gakushuu shrugs. He doesn’t deny it though.

Gakuhou is already in the living room when they walk in. “My favorite son-in-law, and my least favorite son,” he greets.

“Ah, my worst parent,” Gakushuu replies in the same tone.

”My most, uh, memorable ex-principal,” Karma says. 

Gakuhou snorts. “That makes me feel old.”

“You /are/ old,” Gakushuu snarks back.

“Old enough to be a grandfather,” Gakuhou says, “where are my grandchildren?”

“Ah, but you see, your favorite son-in-law doesn’t have an uterus,” Gakushuu says.

“So if he were a girl you two would have children by now,” Gakuhou muses.

Karma turns bright red. Gakushuu coughs.

Dinner goes as wonderfully as it possibly goes, in which Karma has a ball of a time and Gakushuu’s blushing for about 70% of it. Eventually Gakuhou gets bored enough of tormenting his son, ruffles Gakushuu’s hair in an oddly affectionate manner that must have been a recent development, and ambles off.

Karma flops down on Gakushuu’s bed. It’s the same room he had all those years ago and Karma still recognizes it.

“Wanna fuck?” Karma waggles his eyebrows.

“Not here!” Gakushuu turns red.

Karma rolls onto his stomach. “Aww, but I wanna defile your childhood room.”

“We’ve defiled this room tons of times,” Gakushuu grumbles.

“Yes, but we’re married now,” Karma points out, “it’s symbolic.”

“We should watch porn together,” Karma says saucily.

Gakushuu, if possible, turns even redder. “Not under the same fucking roof as my dad,” he hisses.

“That’s not a no,” Karma grins. He rolls onto his back. “Sure you don’t want me to suck your dick?”

“Absolutely not,” Gakushuu says.

Karma cuddles up to him. “Hey.”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. “What?”

“I’m happy,” Karma tells him, “that my coworkers like you. Even if they all have crushes on you now.”

Gakushuu softens. “Idiot,” he ruffles Karma’s hair.

Then because Gakushuu’s hobby is ruining the moment he says, “of course they like me. Who wouldn’t?”

“Shut up.”

\--

Because the grass is greener on the other side or something like that, and because they’re contradictory bitches like that, Karma’s parents adore Gakushuu.

Most people were afraid of their in-laws.  Karma supposes neither of them are like most people.

“Oh!” Hanako says, “Gakushuu! It’s so nice to see you again!”

“Ma’am,” Gakushuu says, bowing a little. He kisses the back of her hand lightly, what a charmer.

“Don’t stand on courtesy like that,” she says, “call me Hanako.” She pauses, “or mom.”

“Mom!” Karma says, face red.

“Oh hush, you,” she shoves his head, “Gakushuu, honey, thank you for finally making an honest man out of this idiot.”

“It wasn’t even a real legal wedding,” Karma mutters. Gakushuu looks rather amused as he goes to the car to help Karma’s father retrieve the suitcases, and Karma is dragged into the house by his mother with what seems to be a dozen shopping bags.

“I don’t get why you don’t just stay here,” Hanako is saying, “a perfectly nice house for you, and you have to get your own apartment somewhere else. We barely come home, you could just put up with us for a week or two every few months.”

“You’re going to retire soon,” Karma argues, “and I want my own place anyways.”

Hanako smacks him again, lightly. “Don’t call me old.”

Karma heads to the kitchen behind her, dumping the shopping bags by the coffee table.

“-staying in Japan for,” Hiro is saying to Gakushuu as they walk in.

“I have to get the base of my company established here first,” Gakushuu says.

“Will you move back to America?” Hiro asks.

“I left a lot there when I came here,” Asano says, “I didn’t plan to migrate back to Japan when I first flew over, so I’ll have to go back anyways.”

Karma frowns. It’s clear that this conversation either stemmed from or was leading towards Karma and Gakushuu’s relationship, and the deadline they set for it.

Their voices trail away. Karma hears them go up the steps.

When Karma looks up his mother is staring at him with a thoughtful expression. “You know,” she starts, voice oddly soft, “your father and I never had the most… conventional relationship.”

“We had this sort of, thing, going on between us that was largely casual,” she continues, “something like you and Gakushuu have now. Oh don’t look at me like that, you two had a drunk wedding in, where was it again? Then never saw each other again. Passionate in the moment, but emotionally relaxed, like us.”

“Mom,” Karma’s face turns red. Hanako shushes him.

“I never planned to stay with your father,” she says, “I loved him back then, but it was the kind of love that would easily go away with time, a crush, if you will. We were travelling all the time, I figured it’d be so messy to try to stay together, so we just had many many flings.”

Karma turns redder. “I-”

“Shh,” Hanako starts chopping vegetables. Karma follows suit, needing something to do with his hands. “Don’t interrupt me. I suppose I started to love your father even more as we continued meeting, and then I got pregnant with you. Neither of us were prepared to be parents, especially in the peak of our career, but I decided to come back to Japan to raise you. I told your father of course, but he was in no obligation to stay with me.”

Karma stays silent. 

“But he did,” Hanako’s tone turns a little sweet, “we started a family, him and me and you. It took a while, jumping between jobs and flights and both of us were- well, we weren’t such great parents to you, being away all the time. We tried to be there when you were younger, we really did, and I am sorry that we weren’t around for you enough.”

Karma pursed his lips. “Yeah.”

Hanako looks at him sadly. “Baby.”

“It’s… fine, mom.” Karma fidgets, “I know you and dad were… busy, with your jobs and stuff.”

“I’m glad you found Gakushuu,” she says, having to tiptoe to kiss him on the forehead. “But what I’m trying to say is, long distance and messy flights are troublesome, yes, but if it’s worth it, you two will make it happen, especially with the right push.”

“But don’t get a baby,” she adds as an afterthought, “that’s way too far. I don’t know how either of you would get the baby-”

“Mom!

\--

Nothing much really changes, except everything does.

Karma feels like he’s thrust 10 years back in the past, like they never broke up, laughing and bantering and fighting over petty little things like what brand of curry they should buy or the pros and cons of making wasabi tea, which movie they wanted to watch. 

Karma feels, he feels a lot of things.

“It’s so stupid,” Karma says, on a three way skype between Nagisa and Akira, “I know this relationship is bound to end soon and he’ll move back to America but I can’t stop myself from liking him more and more.”

“I mean,” Akira says, “tons of people have long distance relationships and they work out fine. Of course, if you want to be realistic about it, eventually someone has to make a decision to give up their current life and join another person, but that’s for the future, if your relationship even lasts till the point.”

“We’ve had plenty of chances to keep in touch,” Karma sighs, “but we don’t. What will make this time any difference?”

“You will make the difference,” Nagisa says, “yes, he didn’t contact you, but you didn’t either. One of you has to make the first move.”

“Like look at us,” Akira says, “we’re the prime example of a good long distance relationship.”

“Friendship,” Nagisa corrects.

Akari scoffs. “You’ll date me in a heartbeat.”

Nagisa’s face burns. “This isn’t about us!”

Karma raises an eyebrow. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“No,” Nagisa insists.

Akari sniffs. “Apparently not.”

Karma narrows his eyes. “Uh huh.”

“Anyways,” Nagisa says loudly, “we’re talking about Karushuu here. Karma, I get that it didn’t work out in the past, but circumstances have changed since a whole ten years ago and-”

“Wait, hold up,” Karma interrupts, “what did you say? What did you call me?”

“It’s a ship name,” Nagisa tells them, “it’s how you, uh, address two people that are a couple. You mash their names together.”

“Karma and Gakushuu,” Akari says thoughtfully.

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah, it’s weird,” Nagisa shrugs, “kids these days. As I was saying, circumstances have changed since a whole ten years ago and I say if you want to stay together with Asano, just tell him. Talk it out.”

“I’ve seen tons of movies like this,” Akari says, “don’t be a cliche and drive a wedge between you two because of miscommunication.”

“Alright,” Karma says, “I’ll talk to him. So Akari, how’s your work going?”

The conversation dissolves into updates on their lives, Karma tells them about his meddlesome workers and Gakushuu charming the hell out of them that Megumi and Hirata now bothers Karma about Asano a lot more, nevermind that the office knows Karma’s married to him.

“Bye,” Akari says, “have to go wow the press.”

“I’ll watch your interview,” Nagisa says loyally.

Akari snorts. “You won’t understand it. It’s in Portuguese.”

“Gakushuu knows Portuguese,” Karma thinks offhandedly.

“Subtitles!” Nagisa cheers.

\--

Karma doesn’t talk to Asano immediately. He doesn’t know how to bring it up, and he doesn’t want to ruin the comfortable situation that they have. It’s just procrastination by this point, dancing around the uncomfortable topic of falling in love with your temporary husband.

Karma doesn’t know when he fell in love this time, he can’t pinpoint a specific moment. It’s like he woke up one day with Gakushuu’s arm slung over his waist and suddenly realized that he wanted this for the rest of his life, feeling like he never fell out of love in the first place.

Gakushuu pokes and prods at it because his Karma-intuition senses that Karma’s bothered about something, and scowls but leaves it alone when Karma snaps at him to drop it.

Karma watches Gakushuu tap at his keyboard. Karma's biting his lip and standing with a spatula at the kitchen counter. 

Gakushuu looks up, and frowns at Karma. “Hey,” he says.

Karma snaps out of his thoughts. “Huh?”

“The fuck is bothering you?” Gakushuu says.

Karma glares. “I don’t want to-”

“You’re burning the eggs,” Gakushuu says. Karma’s eyes widen, and he goes back to the frying pan. When he switches off the heat, Gakushuu has walked up behind him. He takes the spatula from Karma against protests.

“You know,” Gakushuu says softly, his free hand reaching up to press against Karma’s head, “you can talk to me about anything, right?”

Karma looks down. “Yeah.”

“As long as you know that,” Gakushuu gives Karma a kiss on his temple. He strokes Karma’s hair for a bit, then promptly kicks Karma out of his own kitchen. 

Karma watches Gakushuu start a stir-fry, humming as he commandeers Karma’s kitchen with a domestic familiarity. Karma feels his heart beat erratically in his chest. It’s not a crush anymore, they’ve been together for about 4 months now but Karma knows, he does. 

Karma’s been in love with this man before. It feels the same, yet completely foreign. 

“Gakushuu?” He says really softly, but Gakushuu hears him. 

“Yeah?” The man in his kitchen says, turning back, expression open. 

Karma doesn’t want to talk about it. He doesn’t. 

Karma doesn’t want Gakushuu to say he’ll leave. 

“Nothing,” he says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Emotions, emotions, emotions. This fic is slowly reaching it's climax. Do I love angst? Absolutely. Will there be angst in this? Probably. Will I ever write a multi-chapter fic without angst? That remains to be seen, but omg you know I can't RESIST putting angst in things.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!

Karma remembers it. 

“I’m going to America,” Gakushuu tells him 10 years ago on a summer night, when they’re watching the stars from the window of Karma’s balcony and cuddling. 

“You picked out a school already?” Karma asks.

“Got to wait for our results to come out,” Gakushuu shrugs, “you’ve gotten the offer emails too, haven’t you.”

“Of course,” Karma says, “but I’m staying in Japan.”

“Bureaucrat, right?” Gakushuu says, “makes sense. You have a lot here for you.”

Karma looks at him. “So do you,” he says cautiously. 

“I suppose,” Gakushuu muses. He rests his chin on his hand.

“Are you migrating over?” Karma asks, “or just for college?”

“I don’t know yet.” Gakushuu says, “moving there permanently is a possibility, depending on what the states have to offer.”

“You’ll do well wherever you do,” Karma says sincerely. It doesn’t feel like a good time for a jab or an insult, the atmosphere is heavy and wistful.

Gakushuu seems to agree, and smiles at him. “So will you.”

Karma sinks to Gakushuu’s side. “So this is it?”

He doesn’t turn to look at Gakushuu’s expression, but the other’s tone is light as he says, “yeah.”

“It’s been fun,” Karma says, and it has. 

“A real pain,” Gakushuu sighs longsufferingly, but he tugs Karma closer to him, and rests his cheek against the top of Karma’s head.

“We knew we wouldn’t last past high school,” Karma says.

Gakushuu lets out a bark of laughter. “We’ll kill each other.”

Karma finds himself smiling. “Or worse.”

“Stay together?” Gakushuu teases.

“I’ll die of boredom,” Karma says.

Gakushuu shoves him. “Fuck you.”

“Fuck you,” Karma counters eloquently. They scuffle for a little, and Karma lets himself get pinned by Gakushuu, who watches him with an intense gaze. 

“Last chance to decide to lose your virginity to me,” Karma says.

Gakushuu turns incredibly red. ‘Fuck you.”

Karma waggles his eyebrows. “Exactly.”

Gakushuu shuts him up. When they break for air, Karma rolls them over so he’s on top. “Come on, you want it. It’s not like I haven’t seen your dick before. We’re 18 already, but age isn’t what worries you.”

“No,” Gakushuu looks away, “it’s just.”

Karma waits.

“Fine, let’s do it,” Gakushuu meets his eyes, blushing furiously.

Karma frowns. “If you really don’t want to, then…”

“No, it’s, ugh,” Gakushuu groans. “Look, I’ve always… entertained the thought of, uh, doing it first with… someone I would, uh, spend the rest of my life with.” He buries his face in his hands.

Karma pulls them apart. “That’s not stupid,” he says, then teases, “who knew you were a secret romantic?”

Gakushuu glares. “Well, whatever. You’re okay.”

Karma straddles him. “You sure you don’t want to wait?”

Gakushuu seems to have an internal debate with himself, before he looks up and says, “I love you.”

Karma’s eyes widen. “I-”

“You don’t have to say it back,” Gakushuu quickly interrupts, “I don’t have to lose my virginity on my wedding night or whatever. With my first love is good enough for me.”

Karma leans back down again until they’re almost kissing, hands bracing himself at the sides of Gakushuu’s head. His heart is in his throat, and he thinks he might start crying. “I love you too!” He blurts.

Gakushuu’s eyes widen. “okay.”

“Okay?” Karma stares at him incredulously, “is that what you’re saying?”

“What do you want me to say?” Gakushuu asks, shock written on his features, “I confessed first!” 

Karma doesn’t know. He flushes. “What is this?” He throws his hands up. “We established we’ll break up with each other, then we declare our love?”

“Not my fucking fault we’re backwards at everything!” Gakushuu says angrily, “we started dating before we asked each other out!”

“At this rate we’ll marry before we get engaged” Karma wails.

“Stop!” Gakushuu smacks him. 

“Wait, are we still breaking up?” Karma stares, “I mean…”

“Well,” Gakushuu shrugs a little helplessly, “we won’t last long distance.”

“You’re right,” Karma takes a deep breath, “might as well break it off before it becomes messy with us in different continents.”

“Right,” Gakushuu agrees.

They stare at each other for a bit longer. Then, “okay, so are we doing the sex thing?”

“The sex thing,” Karma snorts.

“Fuck you,” Gakushuu smacks him again.

Karma grins, and he leans down to kiss Gakushuu. “We don’t have to do it now,” he says against his lips, “we have like, what, a month before graduation? And it’s not like you’ll fly off immediately after that.”

“Research,” Gakushuu says.

Karma dissolves into helpless giggles. “Fucking nerd.”

Gakushuu kisses him back, awkward with both of them laughing, and Karma collapses on him, burying his face in his chest. 

“I love you,” Karma says, again, heart full.

“I love you too,” Gakushuu says.

Then Gakushuu gets on a plane to go to the other side of the world, and Karma never sees him again. 

\--

“Did you get into a fight?” Megumi asks. 

Karma rubs his eyes, and looks up. “Huh?”

“You and hubby,” Megumi clarifies.

Karma scowls at her. “None of your business.”

“You don’t look well,” Megumi says, “You’ve been mopey for the past few days. I thought-”

“Fuck off, Megumi,” Karma mutters.

Megumi slumps. “Sorry.”

Karma would feel a little guilty about the kicked-puppy expression she’s wearing, but he feels an incoming headache. He rubs at his temples.

Megumi wordlessly offers a packet of aspirin. Karma smiles wobbily at her and takes it.

“Sorry I snapped,” Karma sighs, “it’s just.”

“Don’t tell me about it,” Megumi says quietly, which takes Karma by surprise because Megumi wants to know everything. But Karma decides to take blessings for what they are and relaxes. 

Later that night he’s crying into Rukiyo’s boobs. “I just love him so much!”

Rukiyo pats his hair. “I know baby.”

“I don’t want to break up with him,” Karma whines.

“Did he ask to break up with you?” Kabaya says, alarmed.

“No, but we will,” Karma sniffles, “we never stay together. We always break up.”

“Baby,” Rukiyo says, “don’t think about it like that. Maybe this time will be different.”

Karma sniffles. “That’s what Nagisa said.”

“Gakushuu loves you, you idiot,” Rukiyo continues patting Karma’s hair.

“Not enough,” Karma says. “we weren’t enough.”

“You can’t change what’s past,” Kabaya says, “I know you loved him-”

“Present tense,” Karma says. Buries his face in his hands.

“You have to fight for what you want,” Rukiyo says seriously, or as serious as drunk-Rukiyo could get. “If you want that man, get him.”

“I do want him!” Karma wails.

“Don’t give up,” Rukiyo says, “if you love him, you can’t let him go again.”

“What if he doesn’t want to stay?” Karma whines.

“Well you have to try,” Rukiyo slams the table.

Kabaya takes her bottle away. “She’s right,” he says, “Karma, you’re beating yourself up because you think Gakushuu doesn’t reciprocate but he married you after all, and you two are dating now.”

“I know he likes me,” Karma says miserably, “but he never liked me enough to stay. Even if he married me he never stayed. What would make him?”

Both of them stay silent. 

“I think,” Kabaya finally says, “the reason he never stayed, was because you never wanted him to stay. That’s why.”

“Sure, you loved him,” Rukiyo agrees, “but it was never enough for /you/ to stay. It wasn’t enough for either of you.”

Karma groans, and flops face-down onto the seat.

Kabaya pulls Karma upright and makes both him and Rukiyo drink some water. “You’re wasted,” Kabaya chides.

“I’m heartbroken,” Karma says into his glass. He throws it back, ignoring Kabaya's protests, then downs another. Then things get real fuzzy and hazy.

Karma ends up in a familiar car. He throws up several times, is faintly aware of crouching over the toilet bowl with someone cursing and rubbing his back, then gets toothpaste and mouthwash forced into him. He gets manhandled into a bed that feels like his, there’s a warm voice calling him a drunk idiot. 

Karma gasps when the presence leaves his side. “No!” He cries out.

The warmth reappears. There’s a hand that’s nice and cool against Karma’s warm face.

Karma blinks and squints. Blonde hair and violet eyes waver into view.

“Gakushuu,” Karma murmurs. 

Gakushuu says something Karma can’t make out. Karma grips onto him tighter. “Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t,” Gakushuu promises.

Karma hopes he’s telling the truth. Gakushuu is probably talking about leaving Karma alone when drunk. But Karma wants him so desperately to mean it.   
“Don’t leave me,” he repeats.

Gakushuu sits on the edge of the bed and pats Karma’s hair until he falls asleep.

\--

Gakushuu isn’t there when Karma wakes up, but his clothes are in the bathroom hamper and one set of Karma’s clothes are missing from his closet. 

Karma’s head is hurting like a bitch. He gulps down the water left at his bedside and stumbles to the living room for painkillers. There’s breakfast left on the dining table, which Karma pops into the microwave.

“Headed out for work, don’t die,” is the text Gakushuu sent him about two hours ago. Karma’s glad he’s not working today, he doesn’t know if he’ll make it out of the house alive. Most of the morning is spent eating and then taking another nap.

Karma gets another text around lunchtime, which stirs him from his sleep. “You awake?”

Karma squints at his phone. “Yeah,” he taps out. 

“Dinner tonight?” Gakushuu asks.

Karma smiles a little at his phone, then sighs. “Sure.”

“You okay? You drank more than usual last night.”

“I’m fine. Just had a lot of fun.”

There’s a worrying pause, then Karma almost drops his phone when it abruptly rings. He fumbles with it for a while, swipes to answer, then presses it to his ear. “Yes?”

“You’re not alright,” Gakushuu says passively over the line, “what’s wrong?”

Karma blinks. “You can tell over text?”

The silence that proceeds is an exasperated one. “I can, Karma,” Gakushuu says, oddly gentle. Karma finds himself blinking back tears, maybe it’s because of how intinned Gakushuu is to his emotions and how Karma was missing him.

Karma misses him. 

Karma chokes on a sob. 

“Karma?” Gaksuhuu sounds panicked. “Are you-”

“I’ll ca-call you back,” he gets out, and ends the call. The phone starts ringing again almost immediately, and Karma claps his hands over his mouth and watches it ring.

The phone rings another time, then goes silent. Karma curls up into a ball.

Fuck. He didn’t remember his heart aching this badly the last two times Gakushuu walked out of his life. Gakushuu hadn’t even left this time yet. 

Karma goes back under the covers. He shuts his eyes and finds himself drifting off again, head swimming.

The next thing Karma knows, there’s a hand pressed to his forehead and he jerks awake.

“Wha-” Gakushuu is staring worriedly at Karma, in a full business suit with his hair combed back and everything. “What time is it?”

“About 1,” Gakushuu murmurs, “it’s my lunch break.”. He cradles Karma’s cheek in his hand, and Karma blushes. 

“What are you doing back?” Karma asks. He leans into the contact. 

“I got worried,” Gakushuu admits. Karma gets hit with guilt, making Gakushuu rush from work just to check up on him because he’s too much of a mess of a person to hold a full conversation. “Sorry, I-”

“I think you have a fever,” Gakushuu interrupts. He presses his forehead to Karma’s and strokes his hair for a little while, then leaves the room. Karma watches him go and yeah, he does have nausea and a headache, but he attributed that to the hangover he probably still has.

Gakushuu takes his temperature and purses his lips at the thermometer, and then feeds Karma with takeout and medicine that Karma is pretty sure he doesn’t have in his house.

Karma doesn’t remember falling asleep, but he wakes up to the sound of soft tapping on a keyboard. 

Karma blinks bearily. His head hurts less but he’s still a little out of it. “Don’t you have work?”

Gakushuu looks down, and slides his laptop to the bedside table. “Perks of a CEO, you can work from home whenever you want,” he says. Checks Karma’s temperature again and looks slightly more satisfied with the number he sees. 

Karma feels even guiltier. “I didn’t mean to fall sick.”

“No one means to fall sick, idiot,” Gakushuu laughs a little.  

Karma sniffles. “Why are you here?”

Gakushuu’s expression turns strange, a little hurt. “Taking care of you?”

“No, I mean,” Karma bites his lip, “staying. With me.”

Gakushuu sighs. “Okay, what’s this about?”

Karma stays silent. Gakushuu frowns. “We’ll talk about it eventually,” he says, “I’ll give you a pass since you’re sick.”

“Thanks,” Karma says sadly.

“Sure,” Gakushuu says. Then, “you know I wouldn’t stay if I wanted to leave, right?”

Maybe he meant to comfort but with Karma’s messed up emotions and derailing thoughts, it feels like a stab. Karma chokes on a sob. 

Gakushuu is instantly kneeling down on the floor by the bed so he’s eye level with Karma. “Karma,” he says urgently, eyes wide.

“You’re going to leave!” Karma feels tears sliding down his nose. He presses the heel of his palm to his eyes. “You’re going back to America and you’re going to leave and you won’t stay because you don’t want to.”

Gakushuu pulls Karma’s hands apart and kisses him between the eyes. “We’ll talk about this when you’re better,” he says quietly.

Gakushuu doesn’t leave, kneeling there and watching and thinking, Karma ugly-crying into the pillow until he’s exhausted enough and head heavy enough to go back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I feel so tired. I want to take a nap. I miss being 2 years old when nap time was all the time.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi! How are my favorite readers doing?

They don’t get time to talk about it, whether the mutual avoidance is pure coincidence or purposeful Karma doesn’t know. Sure, he offers to stay behind for overtime to meet a deadline that’s not that far, but his apartment is empty when he gets back so it’s not him that’s running away.

The fact that Gakushuu stayed away does hurt, though. Sleeping alone after five months of having a warm body next to him sucks and he actually doesn’t get a wink of sleep. 

The next day Karma passes out just before lunch, and comes to with the worried faces of his coworkers crowding around where he’s sprawled on the floor.

He waves it off as just low blood pressure, but glares from most of them have Karma admit he skipped yesterday’s dinner and today’s breakfast and may or may not have recovered from his cold two days ago, which gets him a scolding from Ohiko.

“You’re going home immediately,” Ohiko says. 

“Give me your phone,” Megumi demands.

“No,” Karma says, “why?”

“Calling your husband to pick you up,” she says matter-of-factly. Karma opens his mouth, closes it. “I don’t want to bother him at work,” he says weakly. 

“Oh come on,” Hirata says, “what is he doing that’s more important than you?”

“He’s a CEO of a multinational company,” Karma mutters. A lot of things Gakushuu does is more important than Karma. 

“Wait what?” Isoe says, “CEO? Of what?”

Karma rubs at his eyes and sits up. “I’m surprised no one googled him. He gave you his full name.”

This sparks a flurry of activity from everyone as they pull out their phones. Karma gets to his seat just as the entire office collectively gasps.

“I was wondering why you two didn’t share the same last name,” Tanaka says, “is it because of his brand?”

“We’re not legally married,” Karma points out again, a fact that he’d reiterated tons of times that everyone seems to ignore. 

“He has a wikipedia page,” Jin says in awe.

“He’s a millionaire!” Megumi says, “Karma, you’re rich!”

“Sure,” Karma says. 

“Is he coming to send you home or not?” Ohiko interrupts. Karma shoots him a betrayed look to which he just shrugs.

“Right,” Megumi says. She starts tapping something furiously.

Karma stares in suspicion. “What are you doing?”

“I sent his company HR and email,” she says with a flourish.

Karma blinks, astonished. Megumi’s thought process really astounded him sometimes. She was like Rukiyo, but with way less tact. “There’s no way he’s going to see that. HR will just think it’s spam.”

Across the room, Tanaka groans. “Customer service just put me on hold.”

Karma facepalms.

“Did he ever change his number?” Yamamura asks.

“Nope,” Karma sighs. Why were all of his coworkers idiots? How did they make it this far in their jobs? Then, “wait a minute-”

“Asano-senpai! It’s Keiko Yamamura,” Yamamura greets, 

Everyone, Karma included, whips their heads arounds to stare. Yamamura gives Karma a thumbs up. Dammit, Karma thinks, fucking Gakushuu and him giving out his number to tell the juniors to “contact me about anything at all.”

“Akabane passed out at work ten minutes ago,” Yamamura dutifully recites, ignoring Karma’s frantic waving, “he didn’t eat dinner or breakfast and he hasn’t been sleeping- uh huh, mhm, yes. He’s awake- oh ok.”

Yamamura taps a button. Then “you’re on speaker, Asano-senpai!”

There’s a beat of silence, then, “KARMA YOU IDIOT!”

Yamamura yelps. She fumbles with it, then places her phone on the table

There’s a tense silence throughout the office.

“Uh, Asano-senpai, we can hear you,” Yamamura offers hesitantly.

“Thank you Yamamura,” Gakushuu says pleasantly, then, “KARMA SIT YOUR ASS DOWN, AND YOU SAY I CAN’T TAKE CARE OF MYSELF YOU GODDAMN HYPOCRITE.” 

Karma winces. “I-”

“Fucking,” Gakushuu curses on his side of the line. Then he says, voice sounding distant, “Emiko do I have anything on la- ok, no, good, oh what? Ok cancel it. I have to do something- shit, everyone heard me? Tell them to mind their own fuckass business. Yeah, it’s forum guy. Uh huh, a real idiot. Ok, hold on- Yamamura make sure that idiot doesn’t move from his seat. I’ll be there to pick him up.”

Karma winces, again, but resigns to his fate. 

Gakushuu takes 20 minutes to get here, impressive given that his office is 25 minutes away. “-don’t know why I even bother,” he’s already ranting the moment he steps into the floor and eyes turn in the direction of the elevators, and Gakushuu heads towards Karma like he’s a homing pigeon. “Karma Akabane-”

“Idiot, I know,” Karma sighs. 

“You look like shit,” Gakushuu says, unimpressed. 

“You didn’t have to get off work,” Karma mumbles. 

“And you didn’t have to skip two meals but here we are,” Gakushuu scolds. He twists Karma’s ear almost painfully. 

Karma bats his hand away. “I was too nauseous to eat.”

“And you came to work?” Gakushuu says incredulously. “What’s wrong with you? Have you at least tried to get a full night’s sleep?” 

Karma glowers at everyone. His coworkers wisely chose not to mention the overtime. 

“Whatever, you’re such,” Gakushuu sighs and shakes his head. He presses his lips to Karma’s forehead and then taps his table, “get up, car’s downstairs.”

Karma’s head spins when he gets up. He gives the office a wave and Gakushuu is leading him out with a hand on the small of his back, and Karma gratefully flops onto the backseat of his car.

Karma is banished to his own couch while Gakushuu takes over his kitchen and scolds him, then is weighed down to his own bed with his own pillows while Gakushuu scolds him, and Karma supposes it’s not a bad way to go. 

Gakushuu ends up spending the night and Karma’s much better in the morning. The conversation they must have is still weighing at the back of his mind but Gakushuu barely says hi before rushing out the door, so they probably won’t be talking about it anytime soon.

\--

Eventually the talk comes, Gakushuu sitting across Karma at his dining table with his hands folded on his lap, lips pursed and back straight. Karma steels himself. 

“You spending the night?” Karma asks, because it’s a safe topic and because Gakushuu normally does but he’s been scarce for the past two weeks.

“I can’t stay,” Gakushuu says regretfully, rubbing the bridge of his nose, “I have to go back and tie up some loose ends-”

That’s when Karma notices his eyebags and exhaustion. He narrows his eyes, “when was the last time you slept?”

Gakushuu stays silent, guiltily.

“Oh, and you call me a hypocrite-”

“Shut up,” Gakushuu says. He leans forward across the table and says “you better not get me sick” against Karma’s lips even though it’s been over a full week since Karma’s recovery. They make out for a long while and eventually Karma ends up on Gakushuu’s lap with his back against the table edge, straddling him. 

“I still have to go back,” Gakushuu whispers. 

Karma tightens his grip on his shirt. “Stay with me.”

Gakushuu looks away. “I… can’t.”

Karma glares. “Gakushuu-”

“-I have to go back to America,” Gakushuu blurts. Then looks like he regrets it.

Karma’s blood runs cold. “What?” His voice almost breaks. 

“Look, there’s been, some problems with the company,” Gakushuu says, running a hand through his hair, “that’s why I’ve been so busy recently. I thought I could handle them here but, well, I have to go back.”

Karma pulls away. “When were you going to tell me?” He asks, betrayed.

“I was going to tell you in person but you fell sick, and after that I was too busy to drop by but I didn’t want to send you a text about it.” 

Karma feels his heart constrict painfully. “When are you leaving?”

Gakushuu hesitates, and turns away. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. The plan was that I’ll fly back by the end of this month.”

“Is it because of what I said?” Karma asks quietly, “about me wanting you to stay.”

“Somewhat,” Gakushuu sighs.

“I know it never worked out between us,” Karma says, “you always left, even if we went as drastic as tying the knot,” he shuts his eyes, “you left and each time I thought I would never see you again. I know I’ll never be enough but I love you.”

“Karma,” Gakushuu sounds broken, and Karma opens his eyes to look into his bright violet ones, glittering with wetness. “You can’t say things like that.”

Karma grasps at his collar. “It’s true-”

“You don’t even know what you’re saying,” Gakushuu says. He brings a hand up to brush at a tear sliding down Karma’s cheek. “You can’t put it like that, Karma, that I left you.”

“I-”

“-I would have stayed if you asked me to,” Gakushuu says. Karma’s heart shatters.

“What?” Karma whispers so softly he’s not even sure he said it. 

“Maybe the reason I never stayed is because you never loved me enough to want me to,” Gakushuu smiles and it’s brilliant against his tears, “you never asked, Karma. You never asked me to stay, back in high school, back when we tied the knot. I’m sure you liked me, but I don’t think you ever loved me enough.”

“That’s not true,” Karma says weakly, but his grip on Gakushuu’s shirt loosens. 

“You left me, too,” Gakushuu says. Karma stares into his eyes and they’re full of hurt and acceptance.

Karma opens his mouth. Closes it. Shakes his head. Shuts his eyes and rests his forehead on Gakushuu’s shoulders.

Karma feels strong arms envelope him. He sinks into the warmth and breathes in Gakushuu’s scent, and lets out a long whine.

“I’m sorry,” Gakushuu says, “I’m sorry but you have to understand this, maybe I left because I didn’t love you enough, but you never wanted me to stay in the first place.”

“I do!” Karma cries out. He tightens his arms around Gakushuu. “I do now!”

“Karma-”

“Don’t leave me!” Karma sobs, “don’t leave me, I love you, don’t leave, please.”

Gakushuu stays silent for a long moment, as Karma takes shaky breaths into his chest. Then he says, “I think you need to think this over.”

“No I don’t,” Karma says, “I-”

“There’s a lot to consider,” Gakushuu says, “both of us have our lives and careers set up in different ends of the world, and we can’t have a relationship that stays long distance forever. It’s not a one-time decision to be made now, there’s going to be tons of choices to make that won’t affect just us.” Gakushuu was talking about his business empire and Karma’s job in the government.

“Trust me,” Gakushuu continues, “some alone time to reflect on your feelings to see if this is what you really want. You’re too emotional now.”

“Don’t go,” Karma repeats, softer. He doesn’t just mean forever, he means now. 

Karma knows some time to get his feelings and thoughts organized would do him good. But his heart is aching and his mind is all jumbled up and he needs someone with him now.

Gakushuu understands, of course he does. That’s why Karma loves him.

“I’ll stay tonight,” Gakushuu promises. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of short, haha, I had another part after it but I decided to split it up to the next chapter because the tone... changes? You'll see what I mean.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I'm back! How is everyone doing?

Karma holds Gakushuu tighter than he ever has. He’s so confused, who didn’t love who enough? Karma can’t remember what Gakushuu leaving feels like, his chest is constricting so tightly and he loves him to much he doesn’t ever want to let go but he did, twice before, and those times he felt nothing but-

They’re pressed together but they feel so far apart.

“You’re bruising my ribs,” Gakushuu murmurs. 

Karma squeezes tighter. “I’m not sorry.”

Gakushuu huffs at him. He wriggles out of Karma’s arms, rubs at his sides with a betrayed look on his face, and pulls off his shirt. “You’re like a human furnace,” Gakushuu complains. 

It’s not Karma’s fault he runs hot.

Heh. Hot.

Karma’s shameless about ogling his husband. Been there, done that. 

Also, Karma feels a little horny. Sure, he’s sad and all about their future or lack thereof, but Gakushuu’s like, here. Now. 

Gakushuu stretches. 

Make that very horny. 

“Gakushuu,” Karma says.

Gakushuu opens his eyes. “Hm?”

“I need you,” Karma says.

Gakushuu eyes him warily. “Didn’t we say we’ll talk more in the morning? Both of us are sleep deprived-”

“Maybe I should’ve been clearer in addressing your penis,” Karma says. Gakushuu laughs despite himself, and Karma grins at him. 

Gakushuu shifts. “You sure?”

Karma hums. He flips Gakushuu onto his back, and straddles his hips. 

“You’re emotionally compromised,” Gakushuu points out.

“I’m always emotionally compromised,” Karma grumbles, “I haven’t seen you in a month.”

“Don’t talk to my dick,” Gakushuu says.

“He’s the part of you I have no complaints about,” Karma says.

“What about my face?”

“Looks too much like the ex-principal.”

“Oh my god!” Gakushuu yelps. He kicks Karma off the bed. “Is that what you think about when we’re having sex? MY DAD?!”

“No!” Karma rubs the cheek that Gakushuu’s foot has collided into. He’s dragged half the sheets off the bed with him. “Gakushuu!”

“I’m not in the mood anymore!” Gakushuu says in mortification. “Oh my god! Fuck!”

Karma laughs. He jumps back onto the bed. “Baby.”

“You said I reminded you of my dad!” Gakushuu looks betrayed. “When I was literally this close to going down on you!”

“That’s gross!” Karma laughs. 

“I’m glad you know that,” Gakushuu crosses his arms and pouts. 

Karma’s gaze softens. “I love you.”

Gakushuu looks at him. 

“I love you,” Karma repeats. He leans forward to kiss him, then says, “I don’t know about all the other things or whether or not we’ll stay together, but I do know that I love you.”

Gakushuu is quiet for a moment. Then he says, “I love you too.”

Karma lights up and smiles. “Really?”

“Yeah, idiot,” Gakushuu huffs, “are we going to do the thing or what?”

Karma goes back to straddling Gakushuu. “Remember when we first-”

“-oh my god-”

“-tried to fuck, you put in the condom the wrong way-”

“-can we not bring that up?”

“-I didn’t even know it was possible to wear a condom wrongly, but you managed to do that-”

“-Shut up!” Gakushuu says, face burning. He pounces, and Karma laughs as he gets pinned. Gakushuu kisses him hotly and they get all their clothes off without much fanfare. 

“We should get a lube warmer,” Karma says.

Gakushuu pauses in his rifling through Karma’s drawer. “That’s fucking weird.”

“I’m just saying,” Karma says, “it’d feel much better.”

“I mean, yeah,” Gakushuu makes a face, “is that what goes through your head when I’m trying to seduce you? New innovations for better sexual experiences and the fact that I inherited features from my genetic parent?”

“You’re the one who keeps bringing him up,” Karma makes a face, “I stopped thinking about it the moment you got your pants off but it’s in my head now. Should we just use a candle warmer?”

Gakushuu looks thoughtful. “Do you have a candle warmer?”

“I do actually,” Karma says, “in storage.”

“Are we actually going to pause fucking so we can try warming lube?”

“Yes,” Karma says. “I’ll go get it. Just sit here and look pretty.”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. Karma finds a candle warmer, pops the jar of lube into it, and sits back on the bed, satisfied. Gakushuu is laughing at him. 

“Come on, while we’re waiting, I’ll suck your dick,” Gakushuu offers.

Karma grins at him. “Best husband ever.”

\--

Gakushuu leaves.

Karma wakes up alone, way too early for his liking, and there’s a text on his phone saying “had to leave early, sleep tight,” and Karma curls up on a ball on his bed and watches the notification light on his phone blink.

Karma does the only semi-logical thing his brain processes at 6am in the morning - he catches a train downtown and ends up at the high school Nagisa teaches at. 

At 7.30, Nagisa is stepping off the bus and Karma waves from where he’s lounging on the seats at the bus stop. 

“Karma? What are you doing here?” Nagisa jogs over. He’s small and tiny and still as adorable as he was many years ago. 

“Just wanted to see you,” Karma drawls. 

Nagisa gives him an unimpressed look. Dealing with the high school kids must have had an effect on Nagisa, the vibe he’s giving off reminds Karma of Karasuma, but it’s more exasperated parent instead of stern secret agent.

“Did you talk things over with Asano?” Nagisa asks.

“Sorta,” Karma rubs the back of his head, “he said I needed to think more about what I wanted and how this would play out in our futures.”

“He does have an entire business to run in America,” Nagisa says.

“And I’m working for the Japanese government,” Karma says, “one of us is going to have to move over and it’s going to be complicated.”

“Didn’t his company expand here?”

“Yes, but the base of operations is still in America,” Karma sighs. “I don’t want to give up my job, but asking him to give up his would be selfish.”

Nagisa thinks.

“He said he loves me,” Karma says.

“That’s great!” Nagisa cheers. “Wait, that’s great?”

“It is,” Karma confirms, “but, uh.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, he said, and Kabaya and Rukiyo also said,” Karma rubs his arms, “that back then, /I/ never loved Gakushuu enough to stay. And that’s why he never did. And I think they’re right.”

“So do you love him enough this time?” Nagisa asks.

Karma sighs. “I don’t know. I really want to be with him, but I don’t know if I’m willing to let everything here go.”

“Hm,” Nagisa says, “you could bring up the idea of him moving to Japan. Selfish, maybe, but there has to be compromise for this relationship to work out, and maybe there’ll be other options. If anybody could think of something, it’d be the both of you. You two have time to think about it and talk it out.”

“He’s moving back to America by the end of this month.”

“Okay, that’s less time,” Nagisa winces, “but, uh, nothing the two smartest people in Japan can’t figure out, right?”

Karma snorts. “You’re such a nerd,” he says affectionately. 

At this point, the next bus pulls up. A few students that alight immediately hone in on their small blue-haired teacher.

“Ey, sensei,” a tall broad guy that reminds Karma of a much meaner Terasaka with way too many piercings that Kunugigaoka would ever allow, leers at Karma. “Who’s this? You have a friend?”

A redhead stares at Karma judgmentally. “Sensei’s allowed to have friends,” she says, but her tone is disapproving.

A few more students crowd around. “Eh, a suit,” someone with dark hair and a split lip says, “sensei, you have a sugar daddy?”

“Show some respect,” Nagisa chides, standing up and crossing his arms. It’s kind of funny, given that everyone else is at least a head taller. 

“Respect,” the students choir in unison. A blonde flicks Karma a lazy salute. 

“Oi, mister,” mean-Terasaka says, “you anything like sensei?”

“Hm?” Karma raises an eyebrow, “what does that mean?”

“You know,” Dark Hair says, then does some hand chopping and karate gestures with accompanying sound effects. Nagisa looks pained, and Karma snickers.

“How many people have sensei killed?” mean-Terasaka asks, eyes wide, “we’re thinking double digits.”

“Stop bothering him,” Nagisa says. “Off to class!”

Karma laughs. “Just one, that I know off.”

The previously impassive redhead suddenly looks intrigued. “You’re kidding,” she says. 

“Class!” Nagisa says. The students ignore him and start crowding Karma, throwing more questions. Karma mimes zipping his lips.

“Karma, please go away,” Nagisa sighs. 

“Bye bye,” Karma says. “Listen to your sensei.”

Nagisa flips him the bird. The students gasp dramatically, Nagisa rolls his eyes, and Karma pretends to look scandalized. 

\--

“Dinner this week?” Karma asks over text.

“Sorry, really busy,” comes the reply, “my nights are booked for endless online meetings. Time zones, you know.”

Karma winces involuntarily. “Have you been sleeping?”

“Enough. Is this to talk about us, or just food?”

“Both, I guess. We can eat and nap if you’re tired.” 

“I can do lunch, if you would like?”

“Sure, anytime is fine for me. Just let me know when.”

“I can pick you up from your building. How about today?”

Karma looks up at the clock. “Sure. 12?”

“I’ll be there. How long’s your break?”

“An hour,” Karma says, “being gone any longer gets me looks.”

“Heh,” says Gakushuu.

“Why are you smiling?” Megumi peeks over the cubicle divider.

“Why else does Akabane smile these days?” Says Kato three desks over.

“I smile plenty,” Karma argues, pocketing his phone. 

“Sure, when you’re about to cause chaos and destruction,” Tanaka says.

“Anyone notice Akabane hasn’t gotten any love notes since Asano showed up the first time?” Hirata brings up, “not that I’m saying that’s a bad thing, but kind of weird, no?”

“Oh yeah,” Kato muses, “he still got letters when word was going around when you were married.”

“Maybe the physical appearance of the husband proved the rumors?” Isoe says.

“Nah, it was the car,” Megumi says, “that’s a rich person car. That’s the kind of car that says, I could buy you, your entire family, and your firstborn. You don’t mess with a rich person and their husband.”

“You’re right,” Fuuro agrees, “I’d stay away from that car.”

“Even if Asano is super nice,” Hirata sighs. 

“You guys are being so dramatic,” Karma says. 

“Your hubby is the Japanese equivalent of that famous apple founder!” Megumi says. 

“One, Steve Jobs is super dead, and two, Gakushuu is nowhere near as successful,” Karma says. 

“But he’s so much cuter,” Hirata says, “that has to count for like tons of points.”

“He appeared on Forbes 30 under 30,” Yamamura sounds starry-eyed. Karma agrees, he has the magazine in a drawer that Gakushuu had made a face at. Professional photography did wonders for Gakushuu.

“Did he?” Hirata stands up abruptly and pulls out her phone, as does half the office. Karma’s not that unhappy about being replaced as the new communal crush. 

“I thought you guys googled him,” Karma says. 

“We stopped at the part about him being the CEO of a multinational tech company,” Fuuro says.

“That’s the first result,” Karma says.

“You passed out on the floor, you can’t blame us,” Megumi huffs. 

“Oh my god!” Hirata squeals, having found the Forbes article. “Adorbs. Is he coming over soon?”

“In about an hour, yeah,” Karma says. 

“Why didn’t you say so earlier!? I need to touch up on my makeup.”

“You know he married me,” Karma says, a little annoyed, “and he’s coming to pick me up for lunch, on the date with me, whom he married.”

“But you’re not really married,” Megumi points out. She too has her makeup bag out.

Karma groans. 

12pm takes way too long to come, and Karma texts Gakushuu to wait at the lobby as he dashes down. He only has an hour and he doesn’t want to waste half of it to watch his colleagues try to flirt with his husband. 

They go somewhere that’s once again way too high-end for Karma’s paycheck, but Gakushuu loves spoiling him and Karma loves being spoiled so who is he to complain? 

“Is this what passes for rich person fast food?” Karma asks.

“You’re plenty rich too,” Gakushuu answers, “you just chose not to use the bulk of your money that your parents gave you.”

“I’m self sufficient,” Karma says, not bothering to point out that Gakushuu doesn’t either, not that he needs to.

Gakushuu hums, amused. Karma kicks him under the table.

“Hey, check this out,” Gakushuu says, and hands Karma his phone. It is, hilariously, a forum post titled in all caps “CEO’S FORUM GUY: UPDATE”. 

“So the CEO made a very interesting phone call a few days ago,” posts anonymous, “where the department heard him yell “dammit Karma!” really loudly, before asking his secretary (her name is Emiko, click  here to read her posts) to cancel all his appointments for the day. She has revealed that Asano told her that the person on the other end of the phone call is none other than Forum Guy (click  here to follow the thread). The only few words we could hear were the CEO yelling karma a few times and the word hypocrite, and although that sounds like a threat to an enemy, Emiko says that boss sounded fond over the phone (in case you are new here, Emiko is an expert Asano decoder, you can believe the entire head department). But who knows?

Edit: Yes, big boss likes boys, we discussed this in  this thread .”

“Oh my god,” Karma says gleefully. Asano is watching him with an amused raise of an eyebrow.

Karma clicks on Emiko’s profile. She has a rather professional description and formal company updates on the front page of her profile, which is unusual given that the forum seemed to be for shitposting and CEO-related conspiracy theories than actual work. 

Karma clicks on her posts and isn’t disappointed. Her latest post is titled “Outfit Appreciation Of The Month”.

The caption says, “I know this is the beginning of the month but I’m pretty sure I already got a winner. This does NOT seem like his usual style, but he sure pulls it off! Don’t ask me about the change because I HAVE NO IDEA EITHER.” The picture accompanying it is Asano dressed down in a pair of Karma’s skinny jeans and one of the only button-ups that Karma owns, with tiny paper airplanes pattern on it. Asano has the sleeves rolled up.

“Oh my god,” Karma repeats. Asano takes a satisfied sip of his wine. “What are you looking at?”

“Your secretary’s profile,” Karma answers. Her next post is “Cats that look like Director Yuusoon’s hair”, with various pictures of white cats put beside pictures of an old man with a ridiculously fluffy toupee, and yeah, Karma agrees. 

The fifth post is what seems to be last month’s Outfit Appreciation. Karma gasps.

“How could I have not seen this picture?” Karma says, eyes wide. Asano plucks the phone from his hand and laughs at the image. “It was just for five seconds.”

Karma pulls out his own phone and logs into the forum with Gakushuu’s account, and immediately finds the post to screenshot it. It’s a picture of Gakushuu smiling into the camera with cat-ear headbands on, and a hand held up like a paw. He's still dressed in his business suit.

“It’s my wallpaper now,” Karma says.

“You’re so dramatic,” Gakushuu rolls his eyes.

Karma shows him his new wallpaper. “Are you even seeing yourself?” He demands, “look at you! You’re adorable!”

“Thank you,” Gakushuu says. Karma kicks him again. 

They finish lunch rather quickly after that, and in the car the atmosphere settles, and Gakushuu takes a deep breath like he’s going to start a conversation. 

“So,” Gakushuu says, “have you thought about it?”

Karma goes quiet. He says, “I want to ask you to move here.”

Gakushuu tilts his head. 

“I know it’s a lot to ask of you,” Karma continues, “when you already got everything set up in the States and you have a whole life there. But you have one here, too, with… your dad, and your friends, and me. And your company expanded over, which... “

Gakushuu reaches over to take Karma’s hand and he squeezes it back. 

“I love you,” Karma says, “and I want to be with you, but I don’t know if… I…”

“I understand,” Gakushuu says quietly, “I wouldn’t want you to uproot yourself from Japan like that. You always belonged here.”

“You did, too,” Karma says, “you still do.”

Gakushuu runs his hand through his hair. “Look, things aren’t going well over there and-”

“I get it,” Karma interrupts, “it’s not fair to ask me to drop everything and move over, and it’s the same to ask that of you too.”

There’s a soft pause. Then Gakushuu says, “you’d hate it in America.”

Karma smiles a little. “I think I will, honestly.”

“Even I,” Gakushuu says, then cuts himself off. 

Hate it, Karma wants him to say. Come back to Japan if you hate it there, come back and stay with me. 

“Have to go back,” Gakushuu finishes. 

“Are you coming back to Japan?” Karma asks quietly. 

Gakushuu doesn’t answer. The drive back is silent but not an uncomfortable one, both of them absorbed in their thoughts but they’ve done this too many times. 

“So,” Karma says, before he gets out of the car, “two weeks, right? I still have you for that long, at least.”

“Yeah,” Gakushuu says.

“You’re coming to my place tonight,” Karma says, then shoots Gakushuu a heady glare when he tries to protest. “Look at yourself,” Karma scolds, “do you take a 10 minute nap and call it a full night’s rest?”

“I have a meeting-”

“Perks of a CEO, you can work from home,” Karma parrots, “they’ll understand if you’re not in a 3-piece suit at 3am at night.”

Gakushuu sighs. “Fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Here it is, hope you guys enjoy! Maybe this fluff would be enough to tide you through until the next update ;) Till then!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!

One week passes. Karma lives life and goes to work and comes home, and Gakushuu gets back anytime between 10pm to 3am and stands at the doorway of Karma’s bedroom like he’s not sure if he would be intruding. And Karma would have to look up and say, “stop being an idiot,” and pull him to bed. 

“I wish we had more time,” Karma whispers, in the dead of the night, when Gakushuu’s fast asleep. 

The one week mark passes and each day feels like a countdown.

“Karma,” Rukiyo says, “Are you sure you’re going to let him go this time?”

“I don’t want to,” Karma says, “I love him.”

“But?” Kabaya prompts, when Karma falls silent for too long.

“I’m not going to leave Japan,” Karma says, shoulders sagging, “and he’s not going to be in Japan. I knew we were going to end like this before it started and I still fell in headfirst, but I don’t regret it.”

“There are no other options?” Rukiyo says quietly.

“Long distance isn’t going to work if we stay long distance forever,” Karma shrugs helplessly, “either way, it’s just delaying the inevitable if we drag it out without either of us willing to take the step to move.”

“I love my job,” Karma continues, “it’s what I’ve always wanted to do since middle school. Gakushuu’s worked for over a decade to get where he is now. I don’t want to ask him to give it up, I don’t want him to. And i don’t want to give up my life either.”

“I think,” says Kabaya, “one of the hardest things to do in a relationship is to be selfish, because if you love someone, you keep giving and giving and giving, and then there’s nothing left for you to keep. I’m glad you know what you want.”. 

“This isn’t a disney movie,” Rukiyo agrees, “it works or it doesn’t. If you don’t see it working out…”

“I really want it to,” Karma says. He stares into his glass. “I already miss him. But I’ve done this all before, right?”

Rukiyo and Kabaya exchange a glance. “The circumstances are different this time,” Kabaya says.

“You shouldn’t expect to feel exactly the same way you did the last times,” Rukiyo warns, “don’t let that hit you too hard when it comes. We’ll be here for you.”

“I second that,” Kabaya says, clapping Karma on the shoulder. “Love hurts.”

“It does,” Rukiyo nods solemnly. She raises a glass. “To saying goodbye!”

Karma chokes back on a sob. 

Kabaya raises his glass, and they both stare at Karma consideringly.

“To saying goodbye,” Karma says. He raises his glass too, and clinks it against theirs.

“But not good riddance,” Rukiyo adds as an afterthought.

“To good memories,” Kabaya says. 

“And good luck,” Karma finishes. He downs the shot.

\--

Karma finds himself watching the videos of his wedding night.

He laughs a little when Gakushuu smacks him on camera, at himself crying. He smiles at their horrible vows.

Karma gets out of bed and slowly pads out of his bedroom. Gakushuu is sitting in the kitchen with the lights dimmed, tapping something on his keyboard.

“Hey,” Karma says, leaning against the doorframe.

Gakushuu looks up, and takes out his earbuds. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Couldn’t sleep without you,” Karma says.

Gakushuu looks sad. He reaches an arm out and Karma steps forward to take it, and Gakushuu stands up to meet Karma until they're holding hands in the middle of Karma’s kitchen at 2am in the morning.

“Remember,” Karma says, “when we got married?”

“It’d be hard to forget,” Gakushuu replies.

Karma squeezes his hands. He takes a step closer. “We were standing like this.”

“Mhm,” Gakushuu says. He lifts a hand and brushes Karma’s fringe from his eyes. 

“We didn’t do the traditional vows,’ Karma says, “none of that in sickness and in health things.”

“No part of that wedding was traditional,” Gakushuu retorts, softly, “I stayed with you when you were sick, didn’t I? I didn’t need the vows.”

“And thank you for that,” Karma says.

Gakushuu tilts his head and he looks at Karma with a soft expression. “Your hair’s so red.”

“Sorry?” Karma blinks.

“I like it,” Gakushuu says. He leans in. “It’s… unique. It’s the right shade of red. Look at me?”

Karma does. 

“Sunset,” Gakushuu breathes, “your eyes are always gorgeous. You’re my sunrise, my sunset.”

Karma blushes. “I’m not as eloquent as you are,” he mumbles.

“You don’t have to be,” Gakushuu says. “Just listen to me.”

“I always am,” Karma whispers.

“I think it’s the perfect way to describe you,” Gakushuu tells him, “my sun. You are always bright, passionate, that’s what I love about you. If I had the chance, I’d wake up to your sunrise and sleep with your sunset every day.”

“Why don’t you?” Karma says brokenly, “Why don’t you?”

“I can’t believe I only see how beautiful you are every time before we leave, sun’s always warm but the sunset...” Gakushuu smiles and he has tears in his eyes, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“I could never catch up to you,” Karma says, “you were always too far. We were tying for the top spot every single time and I think that was the closest I ever got to you. You were always flying further than me and I had to let you go.”

“You could have called out to me,” Gakushuu’s voice wavers, “you could have asked me to stay. I would’ve stayed.”

“I didn’t want you to,” Karma says, “you were right. I didn’t want you to, I didn’t want you to have to make that choice.”

“It wasn’t your choice to make,” Gakushuu says desperately.

“You were miserable!” Karma yells, “you had to leave. I watched you everyday and you had chains around your ankles and a collar on your neck. I didn’t want you to stay. You had to leave and it never crossed my mind to want you to stay.”

“You didn’t cage me,” Gakushuu replies quietly.

“I know,” Karma says. “You didn’t love me only when you wanted to leave me.”

Gakushuu laughs wetly. Karma giggles between the tears flowing down his cheeks. 

“You know,” Karma says, “we never had a wedding dance.”

“Oh?” Gakushuu places a hand on Karma’s waist and adjusts their footing, and leads them into a slow waltz. “What’s our song? 

“I don’t know,” Karma says, “you’re the musical one between us.”

Gakushuu thinks for a moment, then starts humming. Karma recognizes It’s A Small World.

“Seriously?”

“It fits,” Gakushuu says. Karma smiles at him and steps on his toe on purpose. 

Gakushuu spins him. Karma catches his breath and Gakushuu starts singing the first few clear notes of Hallelujah.

They’re no longer dancing as much as they’re standing on the spot and swaying. Gakushuu sings and Karma sings along, in sync and keys slightly wobbly.

Gakushuu’s bottom lip is slightly wobbly when Karma kisses him. They’re kissing and kissing and then they’re sinking to the kitchen floor, and Karma pushes Gakushuu down and they’re tangled up next to the dining chairs and tables. 

“Tell me you love me,” Karma says, like he’s drowning.

“I’ll show you,” Gakushuu promises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, important question: breakup or stay together? I genuinely can't decide.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehehhe haha hi? How is... everyone doing? So I've decided to... end the story here?  
> I still couldn't decide if they should stay together (HAHAH okay i'm just kidding I already had the ending in mind back when this fic was in like, chapter 5, of course I did some revisions but the idea of it stayed the same) Let's see what happens :P

A little poetic, Karma thinks, to love on a deadline. How many stories have been written, where two people fall in love and they watch the clock tick down?

There’s a beauty in that. Something about the journey and not the destination, the experiences and memories that will live on even if both of them don’t.

Karma doesn’t want to think about all of that.

“Do you want me to see you off at the airport tomorrow?” Karma asks quietly, forehead pressed to Gakushuu’s.

“Dad’s driving me,” Gakushuu answers, threading his fingers through Karma’s hair.

“That’s not what I asked,” Karma murmurs.

“If you want,” Gakushuu says.

Karma peeks an eye open. “I asked what you wanted.”

Gakushuu’s eyes stay closed. “I might change my mind about leaving.”

Karma trembles. That’s just unfair, Gakushuu, pulling a card like that. “Then don’t.”

Gakushuu frowns. “I can’t stay.”

Karma takes a deep breath. “I know.”

Gakushuu pulls back a little, opens his eyes and cups Karma’s face. “You know I love you.”

“Why do you always say that to me when you’re going to leave?”

Gakushuu hesitates before he answers, “hourglass.”

That could mean a lot. Hourglasses were, superficially, time. Running out of time, inevitable fate. But they were also infinity, repetition, which meant Gakushuu was just mocking him. But they were cycles, endings that never ended and beginnings that weren’t quite beginnings.

Karma doesn’t know what to think of that.

He’s tired.

“Stay tonight?” Karma whispers.

“I’ll swing by mine in the morning to say goodbye to my dad and pick up the rest of my stuff.”

Karma hums. They get tangled up in bed lazily and Karma kisses him like it’s not their last day together.

He should stop thinking like one of them is going to die. Gakushuu has a flight tomorrow,

Karma’s exhausted. He doesn’t want to think of Gakushuu or the symbolism of hourglasses or anything like that, and he falls asleep.

Gakushuu kisses him up in the morning. Karma feels more awake than he has ever been and Gakushuu’s throwing all the stuff he left at Karma’s place into a duffel bag.

Karma makes breakfast. Gakushuu says “thanks babe,” and Karma kisses him lightly at the kitchen counter, like it’s a normal tuesday morning on a normal week.

Karma’s never good at goodbyes, he thinks belatedly, they’ve done this before and he’s not good at them.

He doesn’t want to be good at them.

Gakushuu pauses at the doorway, looking unsure.

There’s too much Karma wants to say to him. There’s so much and he doesn’t know where to start, what to say, whether he even wants to say it. Karma keeps his mouth shut.

Gakushuu sighs, he steps forward and tugs Karma close again and shuts his eyes, and their foreheads touch.

Karma doesn’t say any of the things he wants to say. Instead he says, “Bye.”

Gakushuu quirks his lips. “Bye, then.”

“I’ll see you when I see you,” Karma says.

Gakushuu places his set of keys for the apartment down by the table.

He waves a little, like he’s going off to work on a normal tuesday on a normal week.

He’s going to leave, fuck, he’s going to leave-

“Remember,” Karma blurts, heart pounding hard, “in high school, we had that one field trip to the aerospace engineering labs back in first year?”

“We weren’t together back then,” Gakushuu says.

“You sat with me on the bus because I let it slip that I’ve been to space and you wouldn’t stop asking about it,” Karma says, “and I thought you wanted to know what happened to Koro-sensei but it turned out you just really like outer space and you were a nerd about it.”

Gakushuu smiles a little at the memory. “It was embarrassing.”

“It was adorable,” Karma defends, shaking his head. “I,” he says, falters. Takes a deep breath and tries again, “I want to take you to outer space.”

Gakushuu’s eyes widen a fraction, but he stays quiet.

“I want to see the stars with you,” Karma presses his fist to his heart, “I want to us to watch this planet grow smaller and smaller through a window. If I ever get the chance to go to space again I’ll take you with me.”

He wants them to leave everything behind and run away. How does Karma tell Gakushuu that he can’t appreciate the most breathtaking of views if half his heart is gone?

Gakushuu gets it. He always does. He smiles beautifully, says “thank you, Karma,” and for the briefest of moments Karma hopes and hopes and hopes-

-and Gakushuu walks out the door.

Karma sinks to the floor and claps his hand over his mouth and tries not to breathe hard.

Karma goes to work. What else is there to do? He goes to work and his coworkers stare worriedly and Karma holds his head up high and starts going through accounts from where he left off yesterday.

Nobody says anything to him. Karma doesn’t think he could handle a conversation right now.

The clock strikes 1 and Karma startles, and then thinks that Gakushuu should be en route to the airport right now.

Isoe very carefully asks if he’s coming for lunch. Karma shakes his head and declines his offer for buying back food. Warily his coworkers trickle out of the office and he knows he’s going to get little takeaway boxes or snacks from them anyways when they return, but he’s not in the mood to eat.

“Are you skipping lunch again?”

Karma startles. He looks up and Gakushuu is there, standing in the doorway to the office and looking hesitant. Tanaka and Fuuro, still in the office, stay silent and pretend to be engrossed in their report and packed bento respectively. Karma appreciates it.

“Your flight is in two hours,” Karma says.

“I know that,” Gakushuu says. “I brought you lunch.”

Karma looks down at the little bag Gakushuu’s holding. “Why?”

“I came to ask you a question,” Gakushuu says. He sets the bag on Karma’s desk and buries both hands in his pockets. “You don’t have to say yes now, or no. I just want you to think through it for as long as you need and maybe give me an answer eventually.”

Karma bites his lip. “What are you talking about?”

“I want you to wait for me,” Gakushuu says.

“What?” Karma says weakly.

“I want to come back,” Gakushuu says, like Karma’s heart isn’t flatlining at that very moment, “I want to come back to Japan and I want you to be here.”

Karma looks up, eyes wide.

“Three years.” Gakushuu says. “Three years, I’ll come back. We’ll flip the hourglass. We’ll go to space.”

“It’s an hourglass,” Karma mumbles, “it’d run out.”

“Again, and again, and again,” Gakushuu says with bright pleading eyes, “when it does, I’ll keep coming back to you, I’ll-”

“I can’t keep doing this,” Karma’s voice breaks, “I can’t wait forever, Gakushuu, I can’t keep feeling like this everytime we split up, I can’t let you go over and over and not knowing when you’ll come back, if you’re coming back-”

From the left pocket Gakushuu pulls out a little box, and Karma’s heart hammers in his throat.

“What?” He echoes, head spinning.

“This is my promise that I will,” Gakushuu says softly.

Karma lunges forward, he grips Gakushuu’s wrist hard. “We’ve made this promise then,” Karma hisses, tears hot in his eyes, “what’s different now? We’ve made so many fucking promises to each other, then it’s ten years gone and another year, and how long will it be this time? Three years? What’s next, fifteen?!”

Gakushuu looks pained. “Karma-”

He knows his nails are digging too deep into Gakushuu’s hands but he’s angry. “FUCK YOU!” He shrieks, “You bitch! I was, I was going to, I was ready to… I let you go, I already, no I was trying, and now you come here and do this, I want to-”

Gakushuu drops his arms.

Karma sobs. “I was ready to say goodbye.”

Gakushuu opens his arms a little and Karma falls into them, and cries. “I hate you, I hate you,” he keeps repeating, and Gakushuu’s whispering “I’m sorry” like it means anything.

Karma wants to let him go but he… squeezes Gakushuu harder. He want to say yes, he wants to, he wants Gakushuu to come back to him.

How many times must they do this?

They pull apart and Karma wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. “I think you need to go.”

Gakushuu winces. He looks at his watch with a sour expression. “Dad’s going to be pissed.”

Karma sniffles. “Is he downstairs?”

“I made him take a detour,” Gakushuu sighs. “Thanks for hearing me out.”

Karma looks down at the floor. “Say hi to him for me.”

“Heh,” Gakushuu huffs, “yeah. Okay.”

Gakushuu stuffs his hands and the box back in his pocket and smiles wobbily at Karma, and leaves.

“...Akabane?” Fuuro asks shakily, “did you two just… break up?”

Karma knows what they’re going to ask. He doesn’t need to try a long distance relationship to know it wouldn’t work out, he’s spent most of his life being a long-distance son and it won’t work, he can’t do it, he can't love anyone like that.

But maybe Karma’s an idiot, maybe he’s a masochist, maybe watching Gakushuu walk out of his life for the second time that day and the fourth time in his life is literally killing him. Maybe Karma doesn’t have an explanation for the things he does.

He takes his phone out of his pocket and dials the number he pretty much has memorized, and Gakushuu picks up with a shaky “Karma?”

“I’m not going to put my life on hold for you,” Karma says immediately, because if he doesn’t get it out now he doesn’t think he ever will, “and I’m not going to do this on-off. If you come back, it has to be… I want you to stay.”

Gakushuu takes a sharp inhale on his end.

“I’m not going to promise to wait for you,” Karma says, “not in the way you want. Promises have been broken way more times for me than it has for you. But… if you ever decide to come back-”

“I will,” Gakushuu says, he sounds choked up or perhaps it’s the static on the line, “I…I’ll find you again, when I know I won’t ever leave you.”

“That’s…” Karma breathes.

“Live your life,” Gakushuu says, “you’re right, I'm sorry. Don’t wait for me. Go become Japan’s best bureaucrat. We’ll each live our lives and when we’re ready, we’ll fall in love all over again.”

Karma smiles a little. “Okay.”

There’s a beat of silence.

“Bye,” Gakushuu says.

“Bye,” Karma returns, and the line goes dead.

“Are… you alright?” Tanaka asks cautiously.

Karma closes his eyes. Is he?

“I am,” he says.

Maybe things have a way of working out, maybe they don’t. Maybe they’re meant to fight and fall and pull apart and get back together, maybe it’s an hourglass that’s constantly counting down to when they’ll meet up again and how long they’ll last. Maybe it’s a series of coincidences or maybe it’s the strings of fate.

Or maybe, maybe-

  
  


 

 

 

 

 

Gakushuu gets onto a plane to go to the other side of the world, and Karma-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg
> 
>  
> 
> This has been fun, I hope? What did you guys think?  
> (I felt like I should have made this slightly longer. More prose and stuff but not too sure if it fit the mood given the tone with the rest of the story... Oh well, I'm okay with it.)
> 
> Edit: OMG YOU GUYS I planned to end the story here AHHA WAS IT TOO UN-OBVIOUS (in that case I have failed as a writer, forgive me my brethren)   
> I realize I didn't write it anywhere and I forgot to change the total number of chapters so it was reflected as 16/? for a while, and I got comments sounding hopeful that I would push my fav couple back together and I went "oops I should clarify that... I won't, HAHA" sorry guys, see yall soon :)

**Author's Note:**

> Any notes? Comments? Suggestions? Hit me up!


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